No Ordinary Demigod
by HMZ007
Summary: There is a new camper at camp, but he is not like the others. He radiates power like no other demigod, and he's a genius. Doing the impossible and the unexpected used to be Percy's job, but the new guy seems to have taken over. And just when Percy thinks that he has the guy figured out, his true identity is revealed. Will they be a dynamic duo or eternal rivals?
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians or any of Rick Riordan's characters. I do, however, own Leon. First FanFic, so rate and review. Constructive criticism is more than welcome. Enjoy!**

"Got you again, Seaweed Brain!" Annabeth exclaimed as she held Percy at knife's point. He had been sparring with her for about half an hour and she honestly kept winning. Not because she was better than Percy, but because she was distracting. Multiple times, he just found himself staring at her stormy eyes. However, being the daughter of Athena, she wouldn't give up the opportunity to put Percy at her mercy.

"Yeah, right, like I would actually go hard on you," Percy replied, as he tried to back away. Suddenly, though, the word turned upside down as Annabeth flipped him over her shoulder and pressed the knife to his throat harder.

"Take that back," She hissed, her intense gray eyes boring into Percy's. Percy laughed.

"Or what?" he asked, to which his girlfriend smiled.

"Guess who's on inspection next? And guess who might be cleaning the bathrooms for the next week?"

Percy gulped. As easy as it was for him to clean the bathroom with his water powers, the "fragrance" of the johns was unfortunately not something that had improved since he had arrived at camp. "Alright, sorry…" He grumbled. "Let me up already."

"Guess what?" Annabeth asked as she helped Percy up. "I'm not actually on inspection next."

"Wha-, you- aaargh!" was Percy's immensely intellectual reply.

"But Clarisse is."

Percy sighed, "…Just my luck…" Annabeth laughed and took his hand, and then decided against it. "You reek, Seaweed Br-"

"-Percy! You up for a fight?" interrupted a familiar voice. A tall girl jogged into the arena. She had electric blue eyes, short black hair, and despite her goth-looking clothes, she seemed to have a silvery glow around her.

"Hey Thalia!" Annabeth greeted

Thalia smiled in response. "It's been a while, guys!"

"Yeah, where have you been?!" Percy inquired.

"Oh, around. You know how it is with the Hunters."

"Umm…no I don't."

"Oh yeah, I guess not. So again, you up for a fight?" She repeated, glancing at Annabeth. Percy couldn't say no with her watching. Annabeth seemed to recognize this and simply smirked.

"Well, did you bring any tissues with you?" Percy said with a smile as he uncapped Riptide.

Thalia frowned. "Uh, no…why?"

"You're gonna be crying," Percy jeered

Thalia narrowed her eyes. "You are dead, Kelp Head. Dead."

Thalia however, was incorrect. Percy was still the greatest warrior at Camp. And although Thalia was better with a sword than most demigods, it still wasn't her primary weapon. In addition to that, Percy was infinitely more focused on this fight than he was against his girlfriend, so it only lasted about thirty seconds. With the fusion of his combative genius to his already fine-tuned textbook Greek style, Percy's movements had become extremely unpredictable, even to Annabeth. She stood nearby trying to analyze his style and failed miserably. He didn't advance when he was supposed to, and he didn't defend when he was supposed to, which put Thalia in awkward situations, which Percy would then take advantage of.

"Again." Thalia demanded as Percy lowered Riptide from her throat.

Percy smirked. "Are you that anxious to get your butt handed to you again? Maybe some other time."

Thalia glared at Percy. "You're the one who's gonna need tissues tomorrow when we cream you in Capture the Flag, Kelp Head. "

He smirked. "Thals, maybe if you could fight half as good as you could trash talk, you might stand a chance."

At this point Annabeth had walked over to them from where she was standing. She frowned, and from her expression, Percy could see that she had her thinking cap on. "Wait a minute…if you're here…and we're playing Capture the Flag tomorrow…"

"…That means that we're gonna have another Hunters versus Campers match aren't we?" Percy finished with a groan. Thalia grinned and nodded in reply. "_Another groan couldn't hurt_," Percy thought as he proceeded to groan again.

"Whatever, let's go freshen up for dinner," Annabeth said. The trio started walking out of the arena towards the cabins. Every single time Percy saw those twelve cabins with the numerous other cabins surrounding them, he had to smile. He took in the scenery of his favorite place in the world for the millionth time, but he still felt the thrill and wonder of when he saw it the first time. "_This is my home_," He thought nostalgically. He glanced over at Thalia and wrenched himself back to the present as Annabeth's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"So, Thalia, you never really answered Percy's question. What have you been up to lately?"

"Well, I'm a Hunter. And what do hunters usually do, Annie?" Thalia said in a tone that one would usually use with a preschooler.

"I figured that much out myself amusingly enough," Annabeth replied with a glare. "You're impossible."

"Come on, Annabeth! It's like when you come home from school and your parents are like 'How was school, honey?' Nobody actually tells them what you did at school, you just say 'Oh, not much,' or 'nothing special.' Know what I mean?" Thalia complained.

Percy grinned, thinking of all those times that he had come home to his caring mother and she had asked that question. Those conversations had gone almost exactly as Thalia had described, except in his world, "nothing," meant that he hadn't made any new immortal enemies. It didn't account for attempts on his life by mythological monsters.

Meanwhile, Annabeth had opened her mouth to continue their verbal sparring when a familiar voice called out, "Annabeth! Percy! Wait up!" Annabeth and Percy turned to see Will Solace, the head counselor of the Apollo cabin. He had taken over after Michael Yew had died in the Titan War the previous summer. The Apollo cabin did not have the luckiest counselors, to say the least. The one before Michael was a guy named Lee Fletcher, who hadn't survived the Battle of the Labyrinth.

"Sup, Will," Percy greeted.

"Sure, guys; let's just pretend I don't exist!" Thalia said.

"Um, hey Thalia," Will replied. He and Thalia had become good friends during the battle for Olympus and trusted each other, but they still maintained a certain degree of rivalry since Thalia was a Hunter of Artemis and he was also an archer, being Apollo's son. "Anyway," He continued. "Chiron told me to get you two. Apparently there's some new guy that needs orientation. Though why he needs you guys specifically, I don't know."

Annabeth frowned. "I'm sure he has his reasons. He always does."

"Well I guess we'll head over to the Big House, then. See you guys at dinner," Percy said as he took Annabeth's hand. He led her away, leaving Will and Thalia glancing at each other awkwardly.

After a few seconds of trudging through the magically grown strawberry fields, Percy saw Annabeth's eyebrows scrunched up. He gently nudged her. "Have I told you how cute you look when you're trying to figure something out?" He said with a grin. "What's on your mind this time?"

"Well," she started. "I'm used to doing the orientation process. Chiron has me do it all the time. But I don't know why he sent for you."

"I know, right? Who sends for a useless waste of oxygen like me?" Percy joked.

Annabeth laughed. "No, I mean, I don't mind – it's actually kind of nice, but seriously…" Percy grinned and then shrugged.

"Who knows? Maybe he really only needs you for the orientation and he sent for me because Hermes lost his staff again or something."

"That would pretty much suck…" Annabeth replied. "…Unless if we end up on a date at the Eiffel Tower again," she said with a grin. Percy smiled at the memory. It was last September – on their one-month anniversary. Long story short, he had forgotten that it was their one month. Then, Hermes asked them to retrieve his staff from a mini giant that specialized in fraud, and when they did, the messenger god had transported them to the Eiffel Tower for a date as thanks. All in a day's work for Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase.

"Here we are," Percy said when they arrived at the porch of the Big House. Usually Chiron would be playing Pinochle with Dionysus, but he knew Chiron was inside, and he hoped Mr. D was on vacation or something. Percy stepped inside heard voices coming from the rec room, where the Ping-Pong table was.

He opened the door for Annabeth and followed her in. "Ah Percy, my boy! And Annabeth, too," Chiron the centaur greeted them.

"Oh jolly," a bored voice droned. "It's Peter Johnson and Anniebell." At this point, Percy and Annabeth would not have even bothered to correct the wine god if it wasn't for the guy that stood next to him. He was tall, tan, and his skin rippled with lean muscle under his white tee-shirt and dark blue jeans. However, his most distinguishing features were his eyes. The irises were bright gold and almost seemed to glow. They contrasted well with his jet black hair. He looked somewhere between seventeen and twenty – way too old to be a new camper.

"Uh, Percy Jackson, actually," Percy said as he shook the newcomers hand. "This is my girlfriend, Annabeth Chase." The stranger smiled and nodded in Annabeth's direction.

"The name's Leonidas Aurelio. Call me Leon," he replied with a strong yet gentle voice. It sounded like the voice of someone that had been through hardships and struggled, but there was compassion in there. His eyes told the same story, but they also betrayed a sense of humor.

"Hold on…you're the new camper?" Annabeth asked.

"That seems to be the case." Leon replied.

"But…you're too old. Have you been claimed yet?"

"Not that I know of."

Percy's mind raced. "_How come?_" He wondered. "_There's no way he's under thirteen_."

"How old are you?" Percy said. Leon seemed to think about it for a second before he gave his answer, which Percy thought was odd.

"Eighteen."

Annabeth and Percy both turned to face Chiron and Dionysus. "Why wasn't he brought to camp earlier?! Why hasn't he been claimed yet?!" Annabeth shrieked.

"I thought we had a deal, Mr. D. The Olympians were supposed to claim their children by the time they were thirteen. You guys swore on the Styx!" Percy demanded.

"Calm yourselves, you insolent fools," Dionysus said in a carefully controlled voice with purple fire raging in his eyes. "Don't ask me about this. I assure you, he isn't mine."

Meanwhile, Annabeth's intimidating eyes moved from Leon, to Dionysus, to Chiron, and back again. She had a calculating expression on her face as she muttered, "They must have found some sort of loophole or something. And it's probably one of the minor gods. If it was one of the major ones, he would have been killed years ago. There's no way a child of one of the major gods could last so long without joining Camp Half Blood."

Percy looked at Leon. "You must have no idea what's going on," he stated.

Leon grinned at him. "Well, actually Chiron has been filling me in for the past hour or so. I already know about the gods and the Pact of the Big Three and the Titan war last summer, as well as the saviors of the camp; a certain Son of Poseidon and daughter of Athena.

"_Damn, I'm famous. He just got to camp like an hour ago and he already knows about me_," Percy thought with a chuckle.

Chiron cleared his throat. "Enough of this. Percy, go with Annabeth and show him around. Make him feel welcome." He said with emphasis on 'welcome.'

Percy looked over at Annabeth as she narrowed her eyes and simply said, "fine." However, she stayed rooted to her spot and kept looking at Chiron. Leon, like Percy kept looking back and forth at Chiron and Annabeth, except he had a look of understanding on his face. Percy realized that Annabeth must be having one of those silent conversations with Chiron, the ones that he never understood. Did he mention that he hated them?

Finally, Annabeth turned and walked out. "Let's go guys," She called. Percy shrugged at Leon and followed her out with the newcomer close behind. There was something about Leon…Percy couldn't quite put his finger on it, but he knew one thing. Leonidas Aurelio was not a normal demigod.


	2. Chapter 2

**Sorry for the late update. I had midterms…and stuff…and studying…and…ok ok, who am I kidding? I am a freaking professional crastinator. In fact, I wrote this when I was supposed to be studying for a history midterm (do not tell my mom). I'm so B.A., can't you tell? Okay then, onto the story…**

**And by the way, I do not own Percy Jackson and/or the Olympians. Leonidas Aurelio, on the other hand, is all mine.**

Annabeth POV

Annabeth stalked out of the Big House with Leon and Percy close behind her. Deciding to start the tour at the volleyball courts and continue counterclockwise through the camp, she led the boys in the appropriate direction. However, her mind wasn't really focused on the tour. She knew that she should do her best to make Leon feel at home, but that was what she was focused on. Leon. She wasn't sure what to make of him. There was something in his eyes and the way he didn't seem too surprised or impressed by what was around him that made Annabeth think that he wasn't a complete newbie at this. And then there was the issue of his age. There was no way that he survived that long on his own. "_Maybe he was stuck at the Lotus Hotel like the Di Angelos_," she thought. "_Or maybe he's a spy_." She decided to push her suspicions off to the side for now because each theory raised more questions than it answered. Who would have put him into the Lotus Casino? Who would have taken him out? Why? And if he was a spy…then who did he work for? What was his objective? Realizing that Chiron and Dionysus probably would have considered the possibilities, she focused more on the task at hand.

"Here are the volleyball courts, as you can see," Percy said to break the silence. A bunch of Apollo kids were playing – boys and girls alike. Each play lasted approximately thirty hits and was ended by a spike that was often so fast that it literally caught on fire. "It's mostly for Apollo's kids – show offs."

"Definitely the best game of volleyball I've seen," was Leon's reaction, as if he was just saying it to humor Percy. He obviously was not too impressed by the game. Either that, or his mind was on something else, although the sudden exposure to the fact that Greek mythology was real certainly counted as "something else" in this scenario.

Annabeth was still subconsciously trying to analyze Leon. She didn't want to ask too much about his personal life (it was something that tour guides were discouraged from doing), but something about him definitely bugged her. "Leon…you're taking this awfully calmly. Most demigods go through several phases before they come to terms with reality – denial, unconsciousness, fever, headaches, you know, the works. Doesn't any of this strike you as odd?" she asked as an Apollo camper got nailed in the chest from a particularly nasty spike. The resulting scream and laughter was ignored by Annabeth, although Percy cracked a grin.

"Well…I guess so. After being attacked by two Furies, a sea serpent, and a flying pig, it makes more sense," Leon replied absent-mindedly, his eyes not meeting Annabeth's.

Annabeth's mouth dropped. Percy decided to be more vocal with his reaction.

"Damn! What in Hades did you _do_? I mean, I thought I had it rough when I was attacked by _one_ Fury and the Minotaur, but…!"

"I don't know," Leon said. Annabeth, however, suspected otherwise. The simple fact that there were two Furies after the man was enough evidence for her to figure out that he had done something to piss off the Lord of the Dead. When the Fury Alecto had been sent after Percy, it was because of something that had the potential to cause a civil war between the Olympians. If this guy had provoked two of them, she shuddered at what the consequences were going to be. And she had no doubt that the flying pig that he spoke of was none other than the Clazmonian Sow, a monster that even Percy couldn't destroy by himself. "_How in the world did he survive_?" The more Leon talked, the more questions Annabeth had.

"So what happened to them? The monsters and the Furies, I mean," Percy asked.

"I evaded them by arriving at camp."

"_Just like that_?" Annabeth thought. "_There is more to this story. He's hiding something_," she decided. There was something about the minimalistic and simple way that Leon answered questions that hinted that maybe there was more to his words than it seemed.

"So are we going to continue to admire this wonderful game of volleyball, or…?" Leon asked.

"Huh? Oh yeah! Uh, right this way. I'll show you the arts and crafts area and the Lake," Annabeth said hurriedly. "_Focus Annabeth. Focus._"

"A lake?" Leon asked, his eyes brightening. He finally seemed to have found something interesting at camp.

"Well it's not your average lake…" Percy said. His eyes met Annabeth's and they both smiled as they recalled all the good times they had spent there. It was dangerous hanging around there, but hey, when your boyfriend was the son of Poseidon, you could afford to be dangerous.

They passed the arts and crafts area quite swiftly; none of them really had any interest in the arts. As always, Leon's eyes were oddly calculating, a look Annabeth knew well: all her siblings had it. "_Maybe he's a child of Athena_." His gold eyes did not seem to linger on any person in particular, but the same could not be said about the other campers regarding him, especially the girls. Every time they passed a group of Aphrodite campers, squeals and giggles could be heard, which annoyed Annabeth to no end, but did cause her to re-examine Leon. She took in his lean, muscular, and tan form, his jet black hair, and his intimidating gold eyes and conceded that maybe he _was_ a bit handsome. She glanced over at Percy, who also seemed to be stealing glances at Leon. She managed to catch his gaze and gave him an inquisitive look, as if she was asking "_What is _with _this guy?_" Percy just shrugged – typical Seaweed Brain. She looked back at Leon to find him with his lips in a small smile, looking out in the distance. She realized they had reached the lake.

"Oh-uhm, yeah, well this is the lake," she started. "_I am not doing well with this focus thing_."

Leon turned to her. "Your powers of perception are frightening," he said. Because of his straight face, it took Annabeth a moment to realize he was being sarcastic. However, it still wasn't funny. The sheer realization that he actually had a sense of humor was just absurd to her. Percy was having a similar reaction.

"…Uh, thanks," was her immensely intelligent reply.

"Sheesh! And they told me you were a daughter of Athena. That snapped Annabeth back to reality.

"Well excuse me if I don't laugh with the overage, suspicious demigod that doesn't even talk at all. Admit it – you're weird!" she snapped. Annabeth did not deal well with not knowing something. It was almost like OCD, but when someone other than Percy insulted her intelligence, that was it. Her accusation was supported by an indignant "Yeah!" from Percy, who felt the need to support his girlfriend.

Leon tilted his head in a _child, please_ fashion, and it absolutely infuriated Annabeth.

"_I'm_ weird? Seriously? I was just introduced to a world in which gods and monsters, and titans, and deadly doughnut shops. I believe I am entitled to weird."

"Hmph, he's got a point, Annabeth," Percy offered. "And besides, I think I'm starting to like the sarcasm. Give him a chance, will you? How would you feel if you just randomly showed up to a place full of people you didn't know and they asked you about, oh, I don't know…Luke?"

Annabeth glared at him. Truth was, she would probably stab the person in the lungs if they asked her that, but she wasn't about to admit that to Percy – as if he didn't already know. "I hate you sometimes, you know that?" she said.

"Like when I'm right? Come on, Wise Girl, you love me," Percy laughed.

"Sorry to interrupt the moment, but there is an angry manly woman headed our way," stated Leon.

"_Manly woman? Oh, don't tell me…"_ Annabeth turned, and sure enough, she spotted Clarisse LaRue headed their way with her permanent scowl plastered on her face. She was wearing her red armor and carried a helmet and a spear in her right hand, and a shield with a wild boar insignia on her left.

"Oh, that's just Clarisse. She's harmless, really," Percy said with a chuckle.

"Uh huh. Daughter of Ares. Harmless," Leon replied, his eyes fixed on Clarisse.

Wait, what? Daughter of Ares? "Leon, how did you know that she's a daughter of Ares?" Annabeth asked.

"Well I imagine that's what the insignia's for. Unless if she's just into boars, you know?"

Really, one would think that he would have drained himself of sarcasm, with the massive amounts dripping off of him and all.

"How's it going, Clarisse?" Percy called.

"Shut up, Prissy," was Clarisse's answer.

"Charming," commented Leon.

"What was that, noob?! I don't take attitude from anyone, let alone some up-" Clarisse abruptly stopped.

"_I suppose she's noticed the unnerving eyes_," thought Annabeth.

This was when Percy stepped in. "Moving past your attitude reception, Clarisse, why are you here? We're trying to give this guy the tour."

"I'm here to do his combat testing," she said, gesturing towards Leon with her shield. Combat testing was something that new campers that were older than thirteen had to go through so that the camp could evaluate what degree of training they should start at. Usually, however, it was carried out by a Hermes or a Demeter camper. Clarisse on the other hand, was one of the camp's best warriors. If Chiron had sent her to do this job, then he must have thought that Leon had some serious potential.

"_This could be interesting,_" Annabeth thought. "_Maybe we'll gain some insight into him._ _However – "_

"Okay, Clarisse, but that's after this. We've only shown him the volleyball courts and the lake," Percy protested.

The daughter of Ares shrugged. "Not my fault you guys are snails. Probably lost too much time flirting with each other anyway. And besides, I'm not about to wait for you losers to finish and lose _my _precious time."

Annabeth could see Percy fighting off the blush that was creeping into his face as he replied with a smirk, "…Yeah, precious time with her cutie Chris."

It was Clarisse's turn to blush. "Jackson, I will MURDER you!"

"This is very entertaining, really. Please continue," laughed Leon. "And Percy, the amount of death threats you get from females is impressive. They must love you, especially this one," he said, looking at Clarisse.

Clarisse looked like she could have spontaneously combusted on the spot. "WHA - , did he just - , OH, YOU FREAKING – " she didn't even finish before she flung herself at him, fists bared.

"_Ru'roh_," Annabeth thought. However, her fears for Leon dissipated when Clarisse flew past him and nearly fell into the lake. Leon had acted swiftly, and sidestepped to avoid her.

"Bring it, boar woman," challenged Leon.

"Oh, I'll bring it all!" screamed Clarisse with her teeth bared. She drew her sword. Annabeth glanced at Leon, slowly realizing what was going on.

"Uh guys, the fighting arena is over there," Percy pointed.

"Shut it, Prissy. We're doing this right here, right now. No loser talks to me like that!"

"Clarisse, come on! He doesn't even have a weapon!" Percy protested. His statement was negated, however, when there was a blinding light in Leon's right arm, and suddenly a sword was there. Not just any sword, but a magnificent leaf shaped blade similar to Riptide that shimmered like diamond, gold, and bronze all in one. It's beauty made Riptide look like a wooden toothpick. Everyone was rendered mute for a couple of seconds as their eyes feasted on the sword. The daughter of Ares was the first to recover, though. Attractive sword or not, Clarisse was still pissed off as hell. She charged, and Leon raised his sword to meet her's.

Later, Annabeth would compare Leon's fighting to Percy's fighting on steroids. The man was an absolute hurricane. The one attack he allowed Clarisse was the one that started the fight. Afterwards, however, the fight was the manifestation of complete and utter dominance as Leon counterattacked. He spun, he stabbed, he slashed, and he continued to move; never letting his feet stay in the same position for more than half a second. He continuously changed his angle of attack, and though Clarisse was armored and had a shield, she was also incredibly slow compared to Leon. The duel was brought to a close when Leon disarmed Clarisse and split her shield. She had tried to stab at Leon, but he had sidestepped, grabbed her wrist, and twisted it in a way so that Clarisse had no choice but to drop her sword. He then executed a two-handed strike at Clarisse's shield with such force that the hardened wood shattered. Twenty seconds had elapsed since the first strike had been attempted, and Clarisse was completely winded, drenched in sweat, and had a bewildered look in her eyes. Leon's gold ones were more unnerving than ever. He stood light on his feet, and a slight smile played on his lips. His breathing was perfectly normal, and he hadn't even broken a sweat. His sword was nowhere to be seen.

Another minute passed before she, Percy, and the small crowd they had attracted decided to close their mouths after their jaws had dropped during the fight.

Leon walked up to Clarisse, who was lying on the ground a few feet away. "Look, I don't usually insult people for the fun of it. Definitely not my style. To be honest, you were pretty good out there. If only you weren't in Ares-battle-rage mode you could have lasted a bit longer. No hard feelings? Come on," Leon said as he offered Clarisse his hand.

It was only after Clarisse had grudgingly accepted his help that Annabeth realized the genius that Leon wielded. "_That wasn't just a coincidental spat,_" she realized. "_Leon started planning for this as soon as he heard what Clarisse was here for. Everything that happened since then went exactly according to Leon's will. He figured out what 'combat testing' was, and that's when it all began. He realized that he had to beat Clarisse, so he took advantage of our verbal sparring to infuriate Clarisse. She fell for it, and all he had to do was completely reel her in by the 'bring it, boar woman.' He exploited her weakness of provocation to anger her, and therefore effectively prevented her from fighting cleverly at all. After that, it was pure combative genius. WHO IS THIS GUY AND HOW DID HE LEARN TO FIGHT AND THINK LIKE THAT?!_"

"I don't think any further combat testing is required," Leon smiled. Percy, from the look on his face, was still trying to figure out what in Hades was going on.

"How -, what did you just…" He stuttered. Annabeth looked at Leon, and then back at Percy, wondering who would win if it came to a battle between the two of them. The silence was suddenly broken by the dinner bell. She grabbed Percy's hand and started walking off to the dining pavilion. "Come on, Leon," she called. "You'll be eating with the Hermes cabin for now."

"We didn't even get to show him the cabins and stuff, but damn, that fighting…" Percy trailed off.

"I know," Annabeth said. A thought occurred to her at that moment. "_The Hunters v. Campers Capture the Flag game is soon. And although we don't know who his godly parent is, Leon still qualifies as a camper!_" A broad smile spread across her face.

"Uh, Annabeth, why are you smiling? I just told you that you smell," Percy asked. "_Note to self: kill Percy Jackson later,_" Annabeth thought, deciding to temporarily ignore Percy's stupid comment.

"Oh, nothing. Just thinking about Capture the Flag later," she said. Percy's face broke into a crazy grin as he realized what I was thinking.

"_Well I was right about one thing_," Annabeth thought while she entered the dining area. "_That combat testing sure was interesting."_


	3. Chapter 3

**Enjoy the introduction of another new character: Chloe, daughter of Demeter! And to anyone wondering whether I'm ever going to do a Leon POV, I'm probably not going to until one of the very last chapters so that I can maintain some of his mysteriousness. Trust me, he is like nothing the PJO world has ever seen. Just give him (me) some time. I have quite an extensive and exciting plotline mapped out, but it's going to take a while to really get going. Now, on to the story…**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Percy Jackson and the Olympians. But, Leonidas Aurelio and Chloe are mine.**

Chloe groaned as her alarm clock rang, its constant _beep beep_ piercing the empty cabin. _"No one should have to get up this early,"_ thought Chloe. _"Damn archery…"_ She glanced back at the clock, still half asleep. 12:00. Her archery class started at 12:30. There was definitely enough time for a little snooze…

-oOo-

"Chloe! Come on, sis! We've been waiting for you to take our class for two hours!" yelled an extremely annoying voice. That's right, Chloe was teaching the class.

"Uhn gun rihya mouff," replied Chloe. Darn Ben. Chloe loved her eleven year old brother to death, but he was unbearable sometimes. Sometimes, she felt like ripping his mouth off.

"What was that?"

"Ugharimoffnogh!"

"Come again?"

"I AM GOING TO RIP YOUR MOUTH OFF AND FEED IT TO A HELLHOUND."

"Well that escalated quickly."

Chloe leapt out of her bed and tried to pounce on her brother, but vertigo overcame her and she dropped back onto her bed.

"Yeah, once you're done with that, get over to the archery fields. You've got a class. Or should I say you _had_ a class – two hours ago," Ben said while he cracked up.

Chloe glared at him.

"You know," Ben started with a grin. "For a seventeen year old camp counselor, you're not setting the greatest example."

Chloe drew the Celestial Bronze knife she kept under her pillow. "I won't be setting an example if there are no witnesses, now will I?" she said, trying her best maniacal smile.

Ben rolled his eyes. "As long as you can hide the body." Anyway, just get your lazy butt down to the fields. Your students keep annoying me, telling me to go wake you up because I'm the only one who can do that without being eaten by a super-sized Venus fly trap."

"That's going to change in a sec."

"Yeah, okay sure. Just get down there so they get off my tail."

"You have a tail?"

"If you have a brain, then yes, you could say that I have a tail. It's equally likely," Ben laughed and left the cabin. Finally.

Despite the fact that Chloe still wanted to de-mouth her extremely agitating brother, she had to hand it to him: that kid knew how to wake her up.

She dragged herself off the bed and made her way to the bathroom to wash her face and fix her long, straight, dark brown hair. Sometimes people called it dirt brown, referencing the Demeter-plant-dirt connection, but Chloe liked to think of it as chocolate brown. Much more attractive. However, right now her hair manifested entropy, so the phrase nest-of-crap brown was more fitting. She brushed it quickly and tied it up into a ponytail so that it wouldn't get in the way. She changed into a black tank top, a pair of denim shorts, and her white sneakers. She very rarely put on make-up for a number of reasons. First and foremost, it was annoying to maintain it. And secondly, she liked to think that her forest green eyes did not need anything for definition. She was also a true believer of being "naturally beautiful," and, being a daughter of Demeter, it made sense. "There. Good as new," Chloe said to the empty cabin, making sure she looked fine in the mirror.

She grabbed her custom-made bow as well as her quiver and headed out of the Demeter cabin. And by custom-made, Chloe meant that she literally made the bow, using her godly gifts. Unlike most daughters of Demeter, who were average swordsmen and athletes but exceptional gardeners, Chloe was a lot more combat-driven. She loved fighting, perhaps as part of her defiant personality. She simply did not accept that being a daughter of Demeter should make her a tree-hugger and a lousy warrior. She would leave that to her brothers and sisters. Chloe was a warrior, and not just any warrior, but one with certain special talents. Namely, she could control wood, whether it was manipulating pre-existing wood or growing it herself. She also had an extensive knowledge of botany, and combined with her mythological expertise, she could literally make new plants to cater to her needs. She could grow plants with venomous juices which, when applied to an arrowhead, could kill the recipient within thirty seconds – even if it was only a minor graze. On the other hand, she could also grow plants with healing capacities that matched those of ambrosia and nectar, except without the potentially fatal risks.

She made her way to the archery range, which was between the arena and the armory, waving to a few of her siblings and friends as she passed them. Eventually, she arrived at the archery fields to find a group of ten very un-amused demigods. Chloe ignored the glares that were coming her way and went right to business.

"Sorry about the delay, guys. Just get your bows strung," she instructed.

"We did," replied Abigail, a thirteen year old daughter of Nemesis. "Two hours ago. While you were merrily snoozing your way to Olympus," she said with her hands on her hips. Sassy.

Chloe grinned sheepishly. "Like I said, sorry. My alarm clock didn't go off."

"Oh, so now Ben is your alarm clock?" asked Harley, a very young son of Hephaestus that seemed to hang around the Stolls whenever he wasn't in the forges, or, in this case, archery.

Chloe huffed, frustrated. "Come on guys! Get over it. I'll chop off 30 minutes of our lesson today if that makes you happy."

"Forty minutes," ventured Abigail.

"Thirty five minutes," replied Chloe.

"Fifty minutes."

"Full two hours."

That effectively ended the negotiations as Chloe and the class settled for shaving off thirty five minutes from her class. She wanted to make her students happy, of course, but she also knew that most of them did not realize the true value of archery. She even heard that Percy Jackson and his friends would not be alive if he hadn't been able to shoot Geryon through all three of his hearts with an arrow, although she suspected that he had received some divine intervention. She had seen the guy try to shoot at camp. After a burst of yelling at him and two smacks in the face by a tree branch, Percy decided never to practice his archery with Chloe ever again. But dang. Percy Jackson. Chloe had mixed feelings about the guy – a strange concoction of admiration, envy, and defiance.

She admired him because of his heroics during the Titan War during the previous summer, as well as his insanely awesome water powers and stuff, which she figured most people did. She had envy for him, though, because most of his abilities came naturally to him. Chloe had heard that he had bested Luke in swordplay on his first attempt. The guy was a natural genius, something that Chloe never was. She thought sometimes, _"If I was born with that type of genius, I would still work as hard as I do now. I'd be unstoppable."_ She used to imagine, what if geniuses like Percy didn't settle for just what their gifts gave them? What if they worked hard, too? Chloe, however, believed that she would never know – because she wasn't born with that genius. Anything that Chloe excelled at was because of her immense commitment to the task. That's how she learned to control her power over plants, and that's how she became one of the camp's best archers: by one hundred percent hard work and effort. That's why she stayed at the archery range for two hours after her whiny class was dismissed. She repeatedly shot at targets, both static and dynamic. Every shot was a bull's eye.

After she depleted her quiver of thirty arrows for the third time, Chloe finally decided that it was time to wrap up and take a shower; she was drenched in sweat. As she unstrung her bow, a sixth sense told her that something was watching her. At camp, she had always learned to listen to her instincts because they often saved lives. But when she turned, she saw nothing. Chloe shrugged and set out to retrieve her arrows. Just to make herself more comfortable, she restrung her bow since she couldn't shake the feeling that someone, or _something_ was watching her. She made it to the first target board and pulled off an arrow. After making a show of examining it for damage for a few seconds, she abruptly turned and nocked the arrow, gazing down the shaft for potential enemies. Still nothing. Chloe sighed and collected the other five arrows on the particular target. She froze. An estimated twenty feet behind her – meaning by the entrance of the forest, she heard something that was a mix between a growl and a deep rumble. She had heard that noise numerous times before during the Second Titan War: a hellhound.

She rapidly drew an arrow as she turned, aimed in the general direction of the sound, and released. Nothing. She nocked another arrow and listened for any noise, but all she could hear were the sounds of the leaves in the summer wind, the flowing water of the river in the forest, and the distant voices of other campers. _"Hmph. My mind is playing tricks on me again,"_ Chloe thought – a very dangerous thought for demigods. While she deposited the arrow that she had drawn, she reflected, _"I could've sworn – ." _She never got to finish the thought.

Two garbage-truck sized hellhounds roared, leapt out of the forest, and bounded towards Chloe neck at neck, their glowing red eyes thirsty for blood.

Now, a normal person, heck, even a normal demigod would have screamed and run for their life. Chloe, however, saw this as an opportunity to prove herself, terrified as she was. She closed her eyes for a second and quickly focused on the vegetation that covered the ground around her – the ground around the hellhounds. Suddenly, both hellhounds tripped, and seemed to sail through the air in slow motion, about to pull off a spectacular face-plant, but Chloe did not waste any time. Right after she had tripped the two monsters, she had drawn two arrows simultaneously in a matter of milliseconds and fired. The hellhounds did not get the chance to impress the judges with a level ten face plant; they vaporized before they hit the ground. Perhaps five seconds had elapsed since the hellhounds had emerged from the forest. The only signs of the brief battle were the traces of monster dust on the plants and two thick, gnarled wooden roots sticking out of the ground.

Chloe exhaled, realizing she had been holding her breath. Stuff like this happened sometimes. Monsters did occasionally wander out of the forest. So she decided to give herself a pat on the back and continue retrieving her arrows, a task that she had been attempting to complete for quite some time now.

She was pulling her last arrow off the target and replacing it into her quiver when a realization hit her, and her palm made a speedy reunion with her forehead. "How could I be so _stupid_?" Chloe said to herself. She had simply assumed that the hellhound was just another one of the monsters that the forest contained. She hadn't recalled until now the circumstances of the last time a hellhound was in the camp, disregarding the Battle of the Labyrinth: when Percy Jackson had played his first game of Capture the Flag. Luke had summoned it. _"Either someone summoned this thing and wants someone here dead, or Hades himself sent it here. There's no way one of those would be let into camp."_ Chloe's eyes widened. This was a major security breach; she had to report this to Chiron and Mr. D.

-oOo-

Chloe slowly approached the Big House, glancing at the attic window and remembering the previous Oracle; the dead one. This did not help her mood. Memories of the Oracle's lovely stroll through the woods a couple of years ago still gave her nightmares. Needless to say, Chloe liked Rachel a lot more.

She opened the door and navigated through the building to the rec room, where she reasoned Chiron would most likely be, since he wasn't teaching a class or playing pinochle with Mr. D. She liked the fact that the camp's command HQ was a room with a ping pong table. It made the serious discussions more bearable and she absolutely _hated _formalities.

As Chloe was about to open the door, she heard voices coming from the other side. Normally she wouldn't eavesdrop, but one of the voices was unfamiliar. And she had been at camp for about five years now, so she knew just about everyone. She leaned towards the door.

"…Know what's going to happen. What are you going to do?" said Chiron's voice.

"You're taking quite a risk, boy, showing up here like this. If someone were to – "

"Trust me, no one will get hurt. Lord Dionysus, I know what I'm doing, and besides, I have no choice. There is no place for people like me. What would you have me do?" said the new voice, interrupting Dionysus. _"No choice? No place for people like him? And why would anyone get hurt?" _thought Chloe.

"And how – exactly – are you going to ensure that?" inquired Dionysus.

"Look, I saved this camp once, and lost everything doing it. I didn't make that sacrifice in vain; I _will_ protect this camp.

This was too much for Chloe. Saved this camp once? She didn't even know him! Lost everything doing it? And foremost among her questions was this: What did the camp need protection _from_? Her mind flashed back to her encounter with the hellhounds. _"Maybe there's a connection. There has to be."_

Chloe opened the door without knocking and walked in.

At the other end of the ping pong table were three figures. Mr. D., pudgy and flushed as always was dressed in his usual shorts and leopard skin shirt. Chiron, in wheelchair form, sat next to him with the same expression that he had on his face when he thought Percy had died last year. In front of them stood a tall, lean, and muscular teenager – meaning seventeen or eighteen years old - with black hair, a white tee shirt, and dark blue jeans. What really made Chloe catch her breath, however, was his eyes. They were gold, and so bright that they almost seemed to glow. She found herself subconsciously fixing her clothes and her hair, making sure she looked presentable.

Chloe could see Chiron consciously putting effort into brightening his expression when he greeted her. "Chloe, dear! Do you need something?" he smiled forcefully. He was obviously trying to hide something. Namely, the conversation he had just been a part of.

Mr. D was under no such obligation. He narrowed his eyes, the purple fire in them glowing more brightly. "How long were you there?" he asked.

Busted.

Chloe decided to go for half the truth. Scratching the back of her head, she said, "Oh, not long, but long enough to hear that the camp needed protection from something. And that you," she looked pointedly at the stranger, "would be dealing with it."

Golden Eyes raised an eyebrow, and she felt his stare.

"Well guess why I'm here," Chloe said. "Two hellhounds. Straight out of the woods. Explain yourself." Chloe was getting annoyed for some reason. Here was this guy, saying that _he _would protect the camp while _she _was the one being attacked.

The stranger winced. "I didn't realize they would be here so quickly," he said, more to himself.

Mr. D looked mildly alarmed and opened his mouth to say something, but Chiron beat him to it. "What happened to them? Where are they now?" he asked in an urgent tone.

"Oh, I don't know," Chloe shrugged. "They're probably destroying the strawberry fields or something by now." At the sight of their alarmed faces, though, Chloe caved. "Kidding, jeez. I killed them within five seconds of them showing their ugly faces.

Chiron and Dionysus exhaled. Chloe faced the new guy again, and gods those eyes were distracting. "Now back to my question," she said. "What are we facing? Who is here so quickly?" That was another thing about Chloe: she couldn't darn well keep her mouth shut, and she knew it.

Mr. D did not take this questioning lightly. "If that was _any_ of your business, girl – "

"Lord Dionysus, she is right. She heard this much, and she deserves an explanation," interrupted the newcomer. "And I'm sure she has a name," he finished with a polite smile. At least he seemed to be a decent guy. Chloe figured that she would have to bully him into giving her the answers if he didn't willingly comply.

"It's Chloe Arget," Chloe replied. "And do you have a name?" In hindsight, that may have been a bit rude, but whatever.

"Leonidas Aurelio," he said, making his way around the table towards Chloe. A horrible picture of a baby with a six pack and a beard flashed through Chloe's mind.

"Eight syllables - that's a bit of a mouthful. Can I call you Leon or something?" Chloe asked.

Leonidas smiled and nodded. "Sure, call me Leon; that's what I usually go by."

"Cool name," Chloe said. And she wasn't just sucking up – hell no. It was true. How many people named Leonidas do see?

He grinned and offered his hand. As he gave me an assertive and firm handshake, he said, "Humph, Thanks." Chloe found his intimidating eyes hard to meet, which was a strange sensation for her. She was used to being the one with the scary eyes. _"Well," _she reasoned. _"They're not really scary. They're just…different. And I don't know why I'm thinking about this so much."_

"Firstly, tell me how much you heard." He said, his eyes not leaving Chloe.

"I already told you. I just heard that you were going to protect the camp from something." I replied, trying to keep my voice level and not to back down from his gaze.

Leon tilted his head to the side, as if to say _"Child, please."_

Chloe sighed. She hated how he saw through her like that. "Okay, okay, I'll admit it. I showed up a few seconds earlier. Just enough for me to hear that you were taking some sort of risk…and that you didn't have anywhere else to go or something," she said cautiously. Chloe studied his expression to see if he showed a reaction, but there was no such thing. And that was the problem: he didn't show any emotion, positive or negative. The passionate light that had been in his eyes a couple of seconds ago was MIA.

"Look," he said. "For your safety, and for the safety of this camp, I can't tell you everything. What I can tell you is that…well, that I have very powerful and immortal enemies."

Chloe wanted to say "gee, thanks. Never would have figured that one out." What she really said was "No crap."

"And about me not having anywhere else to go," he continued. "I'm sure you can relate. I mean, Camp Half-Blood _is _the only safe place for demigods, right?"

Chloe hadn't considered that he was a half blood, too. Now that she thought about it, it seemed kind of obvious.

"You're a demigod?" she blurted. Leon frowned and sat against the ping pong table.

"You could say that." He replied. What kind of answer was that? Chloe was pretty sure she had just asked a yes or no question.

"Okay…so who's your godly parent?" she asked.

Leon sighed and crossed his arms, looking straight out in front of him. "I don't know." Chloe narrowed her eyes and glared at Dionysus, who had resumed his usual bored expression.

"There's no way he's under thirteen! He's got to be like at least seventeen or something!" She exclaimed.

"Eighteen." He supplied.

"There you go! Eighteen years old. What happened to the pact, Mr. D?

Dionysus glared at Chloe while Chiron glanced between the two, wringing his hands. "Are you done?" the wine god asked. Chloe waited. "You are right, young lady. We did have a pact," Dionysus continued. "But this lad here…he's supposed to be dead."

"But that doesn't mean – wait, what?" Chloe said, glancing at Leon, who looked annoyed.

Chiron cleared his throat. "That is quite enough, Chloe. This is a serious matter that we must discuss in private," he said with a firm voice. You did not argue with that voice.

Chloe waited for him to continue, but she realized that he was the one waiting for her. "Oh, you want me to leave – I see. I'll send Annabeth in since you must absolutely need to go over this with her." Chloe didn't have anything personal against Annabeth. In fact, the two of them were good friends, but she was getting agitated now.

"No – that's not what I – oh, darn it all!" said Chiron. "Just don't send Annabeth in. Actually, I beg you not to spread word of this throughout the camp. We do not need more unrest than there already is."

"Whatever," replied a disappointed Chloe. She turned to leave when Leon spoke up.

"Hey, wait!" he said, walking towards her.

Chloe glared at him. "What do you want?" she said, a bit nastier than she had intended to.

"Look…" he sighed, running a hand through his hair, which appealed to Chloe more than it should have. "I know this whole not being able to know what the hell is going on must suck for you."

Chloe crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow. _"What do you want?"_

"Hopefully," he continued, "We'll be able to sort this out without too much trouble, and I'll be able to fill you in later. Just do us all a favor and keep this to yourself. Please?" he asked with pleading eyes.

Chloe sighed. "Fine. If you say so. But I'm holding you to your word."

Leon grinned. "Oh don't you worry about my word; I never go back on what I say. Nice to meet you Chloe, I'll see you later then."

With a wave, Chloe left the rec room and the Big House in time for lunch. As she made her way to the dining pavilion, she thought about the whole situation that was being hidden from her and the rest of the camp. According to Chiron, even Annabeth did not know about this.

And then there was Leon. He had quite the charismatic presence that she was drawn to for some reason. He was polite and calm, but she had a feeling that if he gave an order, he wouldn't need an official position to convince others to follow him. And damn did he know how to negotiate. If it wasn't for his promise of telling her the truth once whatever it was got "sorted out," Chloe, knowing herself, would have been babbling about it all over camp. Leon had been so mellow and collected, as if whatever it was, he had it under control. Chloe almost believed that nothing serious was wrong and that they were just messing with her. But, she reasoned, Dionysus had been solemn, and that happened about as often as pigs flew (not counting the Clazmonian Sow). Regardless of how in control he had seemed, Chloe did not need an attack by two hellhounds to inform her that something was very wrong. One: the way that Leon had said that he would deal with whatever it was that needed dealing with. The look in his eyes was just a bit fearful. And two: there was a freaking Fury attacking the dining pavilion, screeching, "WHERE IS HE?!"

**I know that there are quite a few of you out there reading this. If anyone would like to review and give me some constructive criticism maybe, that would be great. The more feedback I have, the faster I can update… But as always, thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Clarification: the first two chapters took place shortly before dinner. The third chapter took place slightly before lunch. However, since Percy and Annabeth were not present at the pavilion for lunch, and that the Mist was altering some people's views of the event, they are temporarily unaware of the Fury fiasco (this will be explained in the chapter).**

**S/O to Mitrisha for writing my first review!**

**And, with the disclaimer that I do not own any of the characters in this story other than Leon and Chloe, let's get on with the next chapter, shall we?**

Finally. Dinner! Percy could satisfy his growling stomach. After giving Annabeth's hand a light squeeze, he went off to sit at the Poseidon table – alone. He was used to it by now, but – not for the first time – he wished that Annabeth could sit with him. Percy sat down and asked his empty plate for the usual cheeseburger and blue cherry coke before he got up to scrape some into the bronze brazier for the gods.

He had let Connor guide Leon through the dining procedures, but now he walked up to him, figuring that he wouldn't have done anything like this wherever he had been before.

"Hey, I'm guessing this is new for you," Percy said, gesturing towards the brazier where everyone, cabin by cabin, was lining up.

Leon looked up. "Oh, you mean the sacrifice thing?" Percy nodded. "Yeah, that would be a correct guess, but it's not too complicated, right? You just go up and scrape the best of what you have as an offering?"

"Yup, and you usually pray to one of the gods for something that you need help with or something. Whatever you feel like, really. So, uh, I guess I'll catch up with you later," Percy said as he started to turn away.

"Percy…" Leon started. Percy turned back. "Well, I was wondering…what exactly do you usually ask for? And who do you ask?" Leon asked, scratching the back of his head.

Percy was caught a bit off guard by this. He never considered that people would have trouble thinking of what to pray for. He usually prayed to Poseidon, in general, to protect him and stuff like that when he had nothing else to pray for, which was very rare until this summer. Since the day he had gotten to camp until last summer, there was always some emergency that he needed help with. First, it was finding his mother. Then, it was finding Grover and a cure for Thalia's pine tree. After that it was Annabeth. Other than that, he had always prayed to his father to help him with the Titan War. Even now, he prayed to Aphrodite to keep him and Annabeth together. He almost berated Leon for taking the peace for granted when another thought occurred to him (Wow, this was happening more and more often now that he was dating Annabeth): Leon was an extremely skilled warrior, which may seem entirely irrelevant at the moment, but it was actually very relevant. Maybe he had gotten some degree of skilled from a great teacher, but Percy had noticed that the degree of talent that Leon fought with could not have come without real-world experience. No, Leon was definitely not a greenhorn. He had been through battles, maybe even a war. _But what war?_ Secondly, there was a serious aura around him that betrayed the fact that he was no stranger to grief. _Maybe he went through this grief fairly recently_, Percy thought. In a twisted way, Percy could sort of understand. What if Leon felt betrayed by the gods, and didn't know what to ask? What if he was reluctant to ask any one god because he wasn't claimed yet? What if…

"Uh, Percy?" Leon's voice broke through Percy's conjectures.

"Oh, right…Well, just ask for anything you want, really. Not to be intrusive, but just a suggestion: ask for who your godly parent is. It should clear things up. I mean, at least it did for me."

At this, Leon face noticeably hardened. Something Percy said had struck a chord in there. "Right," Leon replied curtly. He rose and approached the brazier. He closed his eyes for a moment and seemed to be deep in thought, and then he scraped off some of his ravioli into the flames. That guy just got more and more confusing.

Percy returned to his table when he felt someone looking at him. He noticed Annabeth giving him a questioning look and mouthed to her _I'll tell you later_.

-oOo-

About half an hour later, people were finishing up their meals and socializing excitedly about the upcoming Capture the Flag game. Percy wished he could sit at one of the other tables (preferably Athena's) so he could join in on the conversations and maybe even raise the morale. But alas, he was confined to his lonely Poseidon table. Even the generally hostile Artemis table would do. At least he'd have Thalia to talk to, even if the rest of the table wanted his head on a spear.

The Hunters, on their part, were quite merry as well. It didn't take a genius to analyze that their laughs and their easygoing manner was indicative of overconfidence. Granted, however, that their confidence was justified. If they won this game, it would be Camp Half-Blood's fifty-seventh defeat to them in a row. This was just getting plain embarrassing. _This time, though, things will be different,_ Percy thought, or at least hoped, remembering his "dip" in the Styx.

Percy, who was now pretty far along the boredometer, had begun to try to mess with Travis' cup of water halfway across the pavilion when Chiron stepped up from his usual seat. Now in centaur form, he stomped one of his front hooves thrice to get the camp's attention.

"Hello, my dear students, counselors, and heroes! I would like to start off by reiterating that the monster incident at lunch was nothing you should lose sleep over. A couple of Stymphalian birds decided to drop by, that is all. Nothing to worry about. No one was injured, thanks to a new arrival," Chiron said.

Percy's eyes widened. Stymphalian birds? How did he not know about this? He was pretty sure that if...oh, it was at lunch. That explains it. He was…not present for lunch. On a completely unrelated topic, neither was Annabeth. But new arrival? As far as he knew, there was only one recent arrival to the camp, and that was...

"Now to introduce the new arrival," Chiron continued. "Campers, please give a warm welcome to Leonidas Aurelio!" he said, conveniently forgetting to mention Leon's unknown parentage.

There was scattered applause, as well as a couple of whistles, especially from the Aphrodite campers. Leon rose briefly and nodded in acknowledgement of the applause.

"Moving on, I would also like to humbly welcome the Hunters of Artemis," Chiron said with an uncharacteristically nervous smile. "And, as you all are well aware by now, this means that the traditional Campers versus Hunters Capture the Flag will be held tomorrow night." Loud cheering erupted from the Artemis table, which was then drowned out by the cheering of the rest of the camp. Again, the Aphrodite cabin supplied much of the enthusiasm due to the fact that their fundamentals conflicted with those of the Hunters. _It's kind of amusing,_ Percy thought. Then he remembered how he had felt when Annabeth had almost joined them. That shut up those thoughts real quick.

Chiron waited for the cheering to cease and stomped his hoof again for good measure before he continued. "Because of the fact that the campers far outnumber the Hunters, two captains will be assigned to put together a team of thirty for Camp Half-Blood. These people will be in charge of assigning roles and making sure a strategy is carried out."

Percy tensed, and many of the campers' eyes flitted between Percy and Annabeth. It was almost a given that at least one, if not both of them would be chosen to lead the group.

"Today's captains are. . . Percy Jackson and Clarisse LaRue!" declared Chiron. Once again, the crowd exploded in applause for the two heroes. Percy felt glad that Chiron had chosen him; he did not really conform well to being commanded by others. He did wish, however, that the centaur had chosen Annabeth instead of Clarisse. One: they worked much better together, and two: he would end up asking Annabeth for a strategy anyway. He got up and waved to the crowd while his eyes searched for Annabeth at the Athena table. He caught her eye and she gave him a wink and a thumbs up, but then her expression reverted to what Percy had started to call her "scheming face." Her brain was already in let's-kick-butt gear.

Percy then turned to Clarisse and gave her a curt nod that she returned. They may have been rivals, but a common enemy can do wonders for teamwork.

"Percy and Clarisse will compile a list and submit it to me by lunchtime tomorrow. After lunch, the leaders of the selected campers will gather and discuss their strategy. Understood?" Chiron said. People nodded in acknowledgement. "Well then you are dismissed."

-oOo-

Percy walked out of the dining pavilion to a waiting Annabeth and gave her a light kiss on her cheek. "Hey, let's go to my cabin," he said quietly, giving her a wink. Annabeth smiled and responded, "Oooh." Percy brushed it off and said "I wish you could sit with me when we eat…" he whined, and started towards the cabins.

Annabeth laughed, her eyes twinkling. She took Percy's hand and said, "Me, too Seaweed Brain." Percy smiled at this until she continued, "My siblings are too hard to make fun of."

Percy bumped her shoulder with his. "Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Annabeth simply smiled to herself, looking content.

They arrived at Percy's cabin and Percy opened the door for Annabeth. "After you, milady," he said with a bow.

"Why, thank you, kind sir," Annabeth replied with a grin, entering the cabin. He went in after her and, for the three trillion and first time, found himself just staring at her. Her gray eyes, her blonde hair, and the way she smiled. Nothing to him could be more beautiful. And this is coming from a guy who had met Aphrodite, so it was something.

"What?" Annabeth asked.

"What what?"

"You're staring at me again."

"Yeah, well maybe if you weren't so perfect…" he pulled her into his arms and gave her a deep kiss, but she pulled away sooner that he had planned on – meaning about five minutes after it had started. She only did that when she was thinking too much.

"Alright Wise Girl," he said, resting his forehead on Annabeth's. "What's on your mind now?"

Annabeth turned away from him and reclined against the wall on one of the beds. "Do you really need to ask?" she said.

No, he decided. He did not need to ask.

"Leon?"

"Leon."

Percy went over to the bed where Annabeth was and sat down next to her. He lightly kissed her cheek and asked, "You should have seen your face when we first met him today. I swear I could see all the gears in your brain working overtime. So what about him?"

She shifted herself so she was looking at Percy. "He's not new to this business. Being a demigod, I mean," said Annabeth.

Percy nodded in agreement. "I think you're right…the way he defeated Clarisse? Incredible! I'll admit, even I wouldn't be able to beat her that quickly."

"Well yes, the swordsmanship," Annabeth started, "but that's not the only thing. You've seen how new campers react to the revelation that they're a demigod. There wasn't _any_ of that for him. He was just like, 'yeah, what else is new?'"

"And then there's the sword itself," Percy said, remembering the blade Leon had used to dispatch Clarisse. It was without a doubt the most amazing weapon that Percy had ever seen, not counting the master bolt. It had made Riptide look about as attractive as a toothpick. The gleaming, golden-bronze blade that shimmered as it moved, the simple yet beautiful cross guard, the diamond embedded in the pommel, and the way it captured the light…. "I wonder where he got it from…"

Annabeth shook her head. "That sword is the least of my worries. Did you talk to any of the campers about the Stymphalian bird attack?"

Percy frowned. "No, why? Little things like that happen all the time."

Annabeth's eyes were stormy, like they were when she was deep in thought. She replied, "Well I talked to a couple of them. Malcolm – my brother, and Chloe – you know, the girl that became the Demeter counselor when Katie left for college?" Percy nodded. "When they were telling me what happened, their eyes had this strange look in them, like they were glazed over," Annabeth said.

Percy's eyebrows scrunched together as he realized what Annabeth was getting at. He had seen the look that Annabeth was referring to – mostly on mortals that couldn't see monsters for what they really were. "Don't tell me…" he trailed off.

Annabeth nodded. "Exactly. They were being heavily affected by the Mist. And that's not even the worst part," she said ominously.

Percy couldn't help but crack a grin. "Alright, I'll play along with the melodrama," he said. "What's the worst part?"

Annabeth punched him and told him to shut up, but she was grinning herself. She shook herself out of it though, and said, "No, Percy, this is serious. Malcolm's story and Chloe's story did not match."

"Huh?"

"When I asked Malcolm what happened, his recollection matched what Chiron told us, but when I asked Chloe, she said something completely different. She told me that there were no Stymphalian birds, that it was actually a giant fire-breathing vulture."

Percy's eyes widened at the mention of vulture and fire, his mind immediately jumping to the memory of the fateful sixth grade field trip where he had met Alecto, one of the Furies. She had reminded him of a vulture, and she had a whip of fire…

"What's more – and here's the really puzzling part," Annabeth continued. "She said that it was killed by none other than Leon, and she was completely confident about it. For some reason, though, she wasn't arguing with anyone that stuck with the 'official' story."

"Well…" Percy said, scratching his head, "You know what the Furies reminded me of? Vultures. And they had whips of fire. There's got to be a connection. As for the not arguing, maybe she just wasn't affected by the Mist as much as everyone else, but was still affected enough to keep her thoughts to herself."

Annabeth pursed her lips, deep in thought, but then her eyes lit up. "He _did_ say that he had two Furies after him, right?"

Percy frowned again, saying, "Well yes, but he said he evaded them by arriving at camp, didn't he? Maybe it was a lie."

Annabeth shook her head. "No, he doesn't really seem like one to lie, but he definitely did not tell us the whole truth. But then what…" she trailed off.

Percy sighed. "Can we please talk about this later, Wise Girl? He's not important right now," he complained.

Annabeth laughed. "Alright Seaweed Brain," she said as Percy leaned in to give her cheek a peck.

"Thank you."

"So let's talk about how you plan on winning Capture the Flag tomorrow."

Percy pouted, saying, "Come on, we'll figure something out. I got the Curse of Achilles, remember? I'm all invincible and stuff."

"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that we're still going to get our butts handed to us if we don't come up with a strategy," Annabeth replied, starting to get agitated. Percy knew she really hated jumping into something without planning her moves properly.

"No, _you_ guys will get your butts handed to you. I won't. Like I said about five seconds ago, I'm invincible now," Percy replied with a grin.

"Not if I can help it," Annabeth replied with a grin of her own, except this one was a lot scarier. She lunged at Percy and started tickling him like there was no tomorrow. For a few seconds, she watched Percy writhe in laughter until the tables turned on her as Percy threw her off him and returned the favor. Now she was the one who couldn't breathe.

"HAHAHA – hey – HAHAH – stop it – Percy…STOP!" she screamed. Percy, who was also laughing, stopped and stuck his tongue out at her.

"Come at me," he said, but quickly corrected himself once he saw Annabeth's scheming expression. "Figure of speech…relax."

Annabeth sat up and leaned on Percy's shoulder again. "At least think about who you're going to pick for our side."

"For one, there's you," Percy said.

Annabeth nodded. "Yeah, I'd kill you if you didn't choose me, but that still leaves twenty seven more people you still need to decide on."

"Well I guess I'll take the head counselors of most of the twelve main Olympians – Jake Mason from Hephaestus, Will Solace from Apollo, Connor and Travis from Hermes, Nico from Hades, and Chloe from Demeter."

"You'd have to take Drew from Aphrodite," Annabeth added. "You know how they are when the Hunters come around."

"Alright, but she better make herself useful," Percy grumbled. "That leaves twenty more," he said as he reclined back and put his hands behind his head.

Annabeth frowned. "The Hecate campers can be useful sometimes," she wondered out loud.

"Okay, so we add Seth. Nineteen more to go."

"Anyone else specific?" Annabeth asked.

Percy shrugged. "We'll figure it out later, and probably just bring a bunch of Athena, Ares, and Apollo campers.

"Percy?" Annabeth said quietly.

"What is it?" Percy responded.

"We need to add Leon to that list. I have a feeling he can really tip the scales. He's amazing at fighting, and he's a _genius_."

"You're right," Percy said, considering the possibilities. "But what about Clarisse's input?"

Annabeth shrugged. "She probably won't care as long as most of her cabin is included. And besides, tell her you got these ideas from me; I'm pretty sure she won't argue."

"What about her pride, though?" Percy asked.

"Her pride? What do you mean?" Annabeth replied.

"She doesn't play well with those that get the better of her. Ask me, I mean, first the incident where I became one with the plumbing," Annabeth smiled at the memory, "and then when I beat her and her cronies when we were playing Capture the Flag, and then when I saved her sorry hide from the Cyclops. She didn't take any of those well at all," Percy said.

Annabeth nodded, understanding what Percy was getting at. "You're saying that Clarisse won't like working with Leon."

"Exactly."

Annabeth smirked, saying, "She can try to avoid it, but everyone's going to see straight through her. She had a pretty big crowd gathered when she got beaten, and they'll notice that the only reason she wouldn't want to fight alongside him was because of a buttload of butthurt. Don't worry about that."

"Why all the butts?"

"Oh, shut up," she laughed. She leaned in to kiss him when there was a knock on the door. They jumped apart as George, one of Annabeth's younger siblings, poked his head in.

"Um, yeah, so its bedtime…I was just told to remind you two…" he said awkwardly.

Percy rolled his eyes. _I'm almost seventeen and I still have to deal with a nine o'clock bedtime!_ _What in the name of Hypnos…_ He turned to Annabeth, who looked a little irritated.

"I'll be right there, George," she said. "And tell Malcolm to calm down – we were just talking." Annabeth got up and gave Percy a quick kiss on his lips before saying with a smile, "I'll see you tomorrow, good night." Percy returned the smile and watched her leave, thinking about the discussion that they had just had.

_Leon, Stymphalian birds, Capture the Flag, Leon, Clarisse, the Furies, Leon…_Everything seemed connected to the gold-eyed wonder. He pushed his thoughts away and was about to get ready for bed when he heard a sound like the water churning and his cabin was filled with a more sea-watery smell than usual. He looked at his cabin's window, and sure enough, a small envelope had materialized out of sea spray. _A message from my father? _He hastily made his way over to the window, and picked up the letter. The paper felt like it had been soaked and dried completely; Poseidon had not put much effort into finding this paper, if, indeed, it was Poseidon that had sent it. Percy opened the blank envelope gingerly and took out a small square piece of paper. On it were two words that made Percy's heart skip a beat. The last time he had read a letter with those two words, he had met a potential savior/destroyer of the world: Thalia Grace. That had certainly been a hard jolt. So when he read those two words over and over again to himself, he thought, _Oh Gods, what is it this time? _Percy crushed the paper in his fist and threw it away. Instead of going to bed like he had originally planned on, he left his cabin and waded into the water outside. Water always cleared his head, but now, he still couldn't stop thinking about what the paper had said:

_Brace Yourself._

**I'm a horrible person: first, I take forever to update, and then, when I finally do, it's a boring chapter like this one. But I swear the next chapter will have a lot more action. The Capture the Flag game will be covered, and a part of Leon's identity will be uncovered. Predictions regarding Leon, anyone? And by the way, I wouldn't mind a couple of reviews either. In fact, they'd be quite great.**


	5. Chapter 5

**I feel kind of bad…I told you guys that I would have the Capture the Flag game covered in this chapter, but when I started writing Leon's strategy for the game, I ended up with over 3k words already. So I had to make the decision of whether to make you wait (probably another week) and upload a chapter with ~6k words, or upload a 3k word chapter now. Obviously, I've gone with the latter. I swear the next chapter will have the CtF game, though, along with a special treat in regards to uncovering Leon's identity.**

**As for your predictions about Leon, I am proud to announce that no one guessed correctly, but a couple of you are on the right track.**

**And finally, the disclaimer: All characters belong to Rick Riordan, except for Leon, Chloe, and now Seth. (I just realized that Lou Ellen was a real character, but since I mentioned him in the last chapter, and I don't feel like going back and changing it, I'm sticking with him).**

Annabeth POV

Annabeth sat in the rec room next to Percy, waiting for all the other camp counselors to show up. She could tell by looking at Percy's eyes that there was something bothering him, but she didn't ask about it. Annabeth knew that she was the first one that Percy would talk to if there was a problem. But it still bugged her that he didn't tell. She was just confusing that way.

Anyway, she and Percy had discussed with Clarisse the matter of who to select for the Capture the Flag game. The daughter of Ares did not have a problem with the selection (largely due to the fact that Annabeth suggested most of them), but she made sure that quite a few of her siblings were in the roster. The campers had just had lunch and were gathering in the HQ to discuss strategies as planned. Annabeth had brought two of her siblings – Malcolm and Florence. Both of them were blond and gray-eyed like her, and they were both excellent strategists. Technically, the meeting was only for counselors, but considering that Malcolm and Florence were Athena's children, nobody objected. They knew, as even the prideful Annabeth knew, that they would need any ideas that they could get if they were going to defeat the Hunters this time. And there was one more person there, who was currently sitting in the dark corner opposite Percy and Annabeth, surprisingly hard to notice because of his silence. A small smile rested on his face, as if he was curious as to what the plan was.

The door opened, and the Hermes cabin counselors walked in with their usual troublemaker grins plastered on their faces. She glared at Connor and Travis, who were the last ones to show up, as they entered. "Punctual as always," she said, bemused. She gave Percy a nudge with her shoulder, telling him to get started.

Percy stood up and cleared his throat, and all the side conversations came to a halt. Annabeth could feel a pleased smile spreading across her face as she realized how much respect Percy demanded now. Even the usually snarky Connor and Travis gave him their full and undivided attention.

"We're here so that I can outline the battle plan that Annabeth and her siblings have most thoughtfully provided and given to me to present," he said. Annabeth knew the last part was sarcastic and that Percy hated public speaking, but she just smiled as he continued. "We have decided to opt for a defensive strategy, focusing more of our campers on our side of the grounds while a select few offensive specialists – namely me, Clarisse, and a couple others – will attempt to capture the other team's flag."

Annabeth looked over at Leon, who was now leaning forward and frowning, like he had found something distasteful in her strategy. An unexplainable nervousness began to spread inside her.

Meanwhile, Percy reached under the table and pulled out a nine square foot map depicting the forest in which the game was to be played. Everyone in the room, except for Leon, Annabeth reasoned, would be very familiar with the terrain. The river, which served as the boundary between the two teams, snaked through the middle of the map.

Percy continued, looking at Will Solace, "We will have a few archers from the Apollo cabin posted here," he pointed to a spot close to the river on the campers' side, "here, and here. Their job will be to provide cover for anyone that manages to get hold of the Hunters' flag." He paused for a second to allow his audience to absorb the strategy and ask any questions. Leon, Annabeth noticed, had sat back in his seat and crossed his arms. A calculating look adorned his face, most likely trying to make sure there were no major flaws in the strategy.

She looked away from Leon when Chloe raised her hand, saying, "Question." Percy nodded at her, signaling her to continue. "What about our defense?"

"I was getting to that," Percy replied. "In the past, the Hunters have used their superior speed to beat us. They're faster than most of us, and a LOT more agile." Heads nodded around the room. "That's why we'll need to slow them down." He turned to Connor and Travis. "I need you two to set up as many booby traps as possible throughout the entire forest. If we focus them on one place, they'll simply avoid that area, and we can narrow down the areas that we have to defend."

"Sir, yes sir," the brothers said in harmony, mock saluting him and giving Percy scary grins at the prospect of being _told_ to set up traps.

Percy sat down again. "Other than that, we'll go with the usual. And, uh, I have the Curse of Achilles now, so the offensive should go a lot better than it has in the past." He paused again, waiting for a response. Annabeth looked around the room to see people nodding and looking optimistic. The Athena cabin had put at least an hour to put together the strategy, discarding numerous tactics to adopt the ones that would work the best in their circumstances. She hoped that there was no problem with her plan. _There better not be any problem, _she thought.

Apparently, a certain figure in the corner had an objection, though. Leon stood up and heads turned. Some were annoyed that they hadn't noticed him there, some were fascinated, and some (Drew) just stared. Annabeth could hear a couple of them whispering to each other, _do you see his eyes?_ As if he was deaf. Clarisse's eyes narrowed dangerously and glanced at Annabeth. She seemed to have realized that the daughter of Athena had invited the guy. But she wisely decided to keep her thoughts to herself.

Leon raised an eyebrow. "That's it?" he asked.

Percy's eyebrows furrowed as he replied, "Well, yeah. Did you have anything to add?"

Leon turned his eyes to Annabeth. "May I?" Annabeth opened her arms, gesturing towards the room.

"Be my guest," she said. Percy's expression showed slight annoyance as well as curiosity, just like most of the others in the room. They didn't really appreciate the fact that someone who was only attending his second day at camp was giving ideas to the leaders, but hey. When you beat up Clarisse and a bunch of Stymphalian birds (or Furies/vultures, whatever) on your first day, that got you serious respect. Even Malcolm and Florence, Annabeth's siblings, who had contributed greatly to the strategy, were interested in what Leon had to say; Annabeth had told them about him earlier.

"I like most of the things about this plan, but there are some pretty noticeable flaws," he started. Annabeth frowned. Apparent genius or not, her personal pride made it near impossible for her to accept criticism lightly. "Your entire plan," he continued, "is based on the assumption that they don't have a strategy of their own; that they're just going to barge into our side of the forest. I like how you plan on having a small attacking force, though. We can make that work. Also, your attack strategy is virtually nonexistent. You think that just having the Curse of Achilles will win this?" asked Leon.

Percy shifted uncomfortably. He didn't really have an answer, so Annabeth covered for him. "He's fought Titans. I'm pretty sure he can defeat anyone that confronts him," she said, giving Percy's hand a light squeeze. The campers chuckled to themselves and nodded in agreement.

Unfazed by the audience, Leon replied, "I'm not saying that he wouldn't be able to defeat anyone that they throw at him. I'm saying that they _know _they can't fight him."

This time, Annabeth's eyebrows furrowed together. "But, you just said – "

"Annabeth, you're smart. What would you do if you knew that someone like Percy was on the other team?" he prompted.

Annabeth thought about it for a second and gave her reply, saying, "I wouldn't confront them. I'd focus on separating them from the rest of the group first without actually fighting them…maybe with a booby trap. And then we could neutralize the rest of his party."

Leon simply smiled back at her, his gold eyes sparkling intelligently. Then, realization dawned upon Annabeth. "Oh – you mean…oh. You're saying that they're probably going to try to capture Percy with some sort of trap and take out our main offensive force."

"Exactly. And they don't call them the Hunters of Artemis for nothing, I'm sure. They're most likely extremely proficient at setting up traps, and even identifying them, which brings me to my next point: the booby traps you told the Hermes cabins to set up," Leon said, walking up to the table and looking at the map. He pointed to a spot on the map where one of the traps were going to be and said, "They're not going to be enough."

"Whoa, whoa!" Connor blurted. "You are _not_ questioning our trapping abilities are you?" He turned to Travis. "Tell me he did not just do that."

Travis had a pretty serious face, too, when he said, "I think he just did." Annabeth sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. _They need to shut up…_

Leon raised an eyebrow. "That's exactly what I just did, actually. They were trained by Artemis, a goddess," he stated with a smirk. "But even if you _are_ really that good, it's just to be on the safe side, okay?" he said quickly when he saw the Stolls getting pissed off. Pranking and booby trapping were two of the only things in which they excelled at and took pride in.

"Anyway," Leon resumed. "Let's consider the Hunter's main advantage: their accuracy with archery, and their speed. From what I hear, they won last time simply because the camper that played that game was too slow."

"*cough* Prissy *cough*" was heard from Clarisse's general direction.

Ignoring Clarisse's comment, Leon turned to Chloe, who was about to fall asleep, judging from her expression. Annabeth knew that Chloe was a smart person, but in regards to anything except her training, she was lazy as hell. She probably was just planning on going to sleep and asking about the final strategy once they had actually decided upon a course of action. So far, though, Annabeth had to admit, everything that Leon said made perfect sense.

"Huh?" Chloe said when Leon called her name. She sat up and yawned. "What's up?"

If Leon was annoyed by the lethargy, he did not show it. "We need you and your siblings to make our side of the forest as difficult to run through as possible. Grow plants and vines on the ground, tangle them together, grow them between trees, anything to slow the Hunters down once they get in there," he said.

Annabeth smiled as she realized how Leon had conveniently used "we" instead of "I," and therefore included Percy, herself, and Clarisse, giving him greater authority and influence in the audience's minds, even if they were not aware of it.

"Yeah, no problem," Chloe responded with a grin. For a daughter of Demeter, she was quite chaotic. Annabeth could tell that she was going to enjoy her task.

Annabeth liked the plan so far, but she saw a major problem with the last component. "Wait," she said, causing Leon's deep gold eyes to return to her. "Won't that affect us, too?"

"I did consider that. And the answer is yes, but not nearly as much as it will affect them. Just wait. I haven't finished putting the plan together."

Annabeth nodded, accepting the explanation for now. However, she noticed again that he refrained from using personal pronouns, saying 'the plan,' not 'my plan.'" With every minute that passed, with every sentence that Leon uttered, Annabeth's respect for Leon's intelligence only grew.

"The idea of having Apollo campers posted in the trees by the river is a good one. We should definitely keep that part of the strategy," Leon said.

Will Solace snorted and said, "Darn right," much to everyone's amusement.

"Now," continued Leon, "For the main defensive strategy: Has Camp Half-Blood ever used decoys?" he asked Annabeth.

"What do you mean?" she said.

"I mean the flag. Has anyone ever made decoys of it?" he asked the room in general. Annabeth noticed that Chloe, for once, was actually paying attention, which she thought was kind of amusing. Meanwhile, everyone's gaze shifted to Annabeth expectantly, reverting her focus to the question that had just been asked.

Florence answered for her, though, saying, "No. Making decoys of the other team's flag is useless. The Camp has many magical boundaries, and one of them is between the two sides. It prevents any cheating by making anything that isn't the actual flag disappear once it crosses the river. We've actually thought about going to the other side, taking out a replica of the other team's flag, and just coming back over a couple of minutes later, but when the replica disappeared, we realized that it wouldn't work." A confused expression spread across Leon's face, and Annabeth realized why.

"Florence," she said quietly. "I don't think that is what he was trying to say."

Leon shook his head. "Nope, definitely not what I was trying to get at. One: that would count as cheating. I'm guessing that this 'boundary' that you speak of is not really between the two sides. It just prevents both teams from _cheating._ Secondly, that's an offensive strategy. I'm pretty sure we were talking defense," he said in a polite tone. Annabeth realized that he could have said that a lot nastier than he did. She liked that about him, but she still sympathized with her sister, who was turning red now. For a child of Athena, being proven wrong was pretty high up on their 'least favorite things' list.

"Alright, so what are you trying to say?" Percy asked, starting to get irritated. Annabeth knew he liked things plain and simple. Heck, if he wasn't one of the leaders, he would probably have started making spit balls by now.

"I'm saying that we make decoys of _our_ flag. Make at least two copies and, since the banners have to be prominently displayed, display them closer to the boundary than the real banner. All the banners will have two guards, as per the rules," Leon said.

"That's all fine and dandy," Clarisse said with a scowl. "But how are we actually going to get copies of the banner? And what's going to happen if they fall for it and take one of the decoys?"

"Again, I was getting to that," Leon replied patiently. "I believe our friend Seth can help us." He turned to the Hecate counselor. "Am I right?"

Seth ran his hands through his long, dirty blond hair, mulling it over for a couple of seconds before saying, "Yes, I think so. What exactly do you need me to do other than make the decoys?"

Leon pointed to the river on the map. "Set up a magic boundary. If you can, make it so that if the decoys cross the line, they will dissolve, disappear, change color, whatever. Make sure that they know it was a decoy at that point."

Seth smiled. "Can I _do_ that? Of course I can! I'm liking this…" he said enthusiastically. Judging from the faces of the other campers, they liked the plan as well.

_Brilliant! The Hunters will come over to our side, and grab the first flag that they see, which will be the decoy. If they manage to bring it back, it will disappear, and they'll know it was a trick. However, it will be too late by then and with any luck, we'll have their flag, _Annabeth mused.

Leon smirked at Clarisse and said, "Satisfied?" Clarisse just grunted, meaning she was very pleased with the idea.

"Now, for the offensive strategy…" Leon said, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "We only have so many available attackers, since most of our focus is on defense, but I think I've got it." He pointed to the right side of the map, and starting at the river, he ran his finger through the Hunters' left flank and said, "Clarisse, you should take three or four warriors and attack through this route. You don't need to be too stealthy since we're trying to draw their attention, but try not to make it too blatant that it's a diversion." Clarisse opened her mouth to object, displeased with simply carrying out a diversion, but Leon moved on.

"Meanwhile…" he moved his finger from the middle of the playing field straight forward into the heart of the Hunters' area. "Travis and Connor will try to take advantage of Clarisse's distraction and make their way to the banner. Your objective _is _to be stealthy." The brothers gave him identical grins. "However, chances are that you'll still get caught." Their faces fell. "By then, they'll think that you were the main act, and they'll realize that Clarisse was just a diversion – that is, if they didn't already figure that out. After finding you, they'll let their guard down. And besides, they'll be spread too thin to muster any real opposition to the _real_ attack effort," Leon said. Once again, he pointed to the Hunter's right flank and said, "Percy and Annabeth will take this route. From what I can tell, they're fast, and they know the Hunters' fighting style well, so they shouldn't be delayed by opposition. Once they have the banner, Clarisse's warriors and Connor and Travis will escort them back to our side. What do you guys think?" he asked.

Annabeth realized the question was directed at her Percy, and Clarisse. She looked around and found everyone staring at her, silently begging, _please, let's try this_. And she couldn't agree with them more.

"Let's do it," Annabeth and Percy said simultaneously. Ignoring the Stoll brothers' mischievous grins, they turned to Clarisse, who was glaring at Leon. Leon was not intimidated in the least and refused to back down from her stare. Eventually, he won and Clarisse looked away.

"Fine."

A grin split Leon's face, and Annabeth couldn't help but smile either. This guy had just been introduced to the camp, to the game, and to the campers, and already he had just formulated a scrumptious multi-layered plan worthy of a child of Athena. _No, not a child of Athena, but Athena herself,_ Annabeth thought.

She looked over at Percy and saw a small smile playing along his lips. He may not have the same level of understanding in regards to military strategies that she did, but Annabeth could tell he was also impressed. Something felt different; an air of victory resided in the camper's hearts. They somehow knew they were going to win.

A voice interrupted her thoughts: Chloe's voice. "Wait, what about you, Leon? You didn't tell us what you were going to do," she pointed out.

"If it's alright with you two," he said, looking at Annabeth and Percy, "I'll follow you guys, staying about thirty feet behind you, in case something happens and also to prevent them from sneaking up from behind you. When you have their flag, I'll make sure you cross the river before they do."

"That's a good idea," Percy thought out loud. Annabeth agreed with him. She realized with a jolt that she would feel a lot more comfortable with Leon bringing up their rear.

"It's final then," Leon said. "You all know what your jobs are. Get them done, and while you're at it, share the plan with your cabin mates."

He wasn't even the leader, Annabeth noticed. He's only been here for one day, and everyone's already obeying him like they owe him their lives. _I was right when I thought that he wouldn't need an official position to get people to listen to him_.

She stood up, followed shortly by Percy. "Let's win this." All around the room, people smiled and looked at Leon in awe. If they won this, she thought, Leon would become insanely popular. In fact, she kind of wanted to let him take the banner. Annabeth noticed one thing, though: she may know next to nothing about Leon, but she did know one thing: You did _not_ want to be his enemy.


	6. Chapter 6

**Wow it feels like it's been forever since I last updated. Sorry guys. On the bright side, I promised you the Capture the Flag game, and here it is, along with my "special treat" in regards to Leon's identity.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters featured in Percy Jackson and the Olympians.**

Chloe POV

Chloe approved of Leon's strategy, but not satisfied with it. She was not one to quietly sit and let others tell her what to do, especially if that assignment was to simply patrol their area during the game. She was a warrior, meaning she wanted action…and a couple other things.

That's why she took her siblings to the forest immediately to complete the task that Leon had assigned them: so they could be done with it, and so that Chloe would have some backup when she asked Leon about _her _plan. The actual growing of the vegetation that was intended to hinder the Hunters did not take as much effort as she thought it would, but nevertheless, she felt pretty drained when she finished. Chloe stood up on a boulder and admired the Demeter campers' handy work. Satisfied that no one would be able to walk, let alone run in it, without getting entangled with the plants or having to cut them down, she made her way back to the camp to find Leon.

Walking into the cabin area, she headed towards the Hermes cabin, where she knew Leon was staying. Nowadays, with gods claiming their children on time and all (for the most part), the messenger god's cabin was relatively empty. It still had a decent number of campers, but not so much that a new one would have to sleep on the floor, like they had until very recently.

Chloe knocked on the door and waited patiently. Nobody answered. She knocked again. Still nothing. She pounded on the door, yelling, "Unless if you feel like installing a new door, I suggest you open this one!"

The door opened and Connor Stoll's head appeared through the crack, laughing. "I was wondering how long you would last before you blew up," he said. "Woman, you just won me ten bucks."

Chloe was seething inside because she had just been the source of a bet, but she restrained herself so that Connor would be denied the satisfaction of seeing her pissed off. "I need to talk to Leon," she said politely.

Connor blinked. "Well then go talk to Leon. Waddaya talking to me for?" he replied with a confused look.

"Wait, you mean he's not in there?" Chloe asked.

Connor shook his head. "Nope."

Chloe crossed her arms, saying, "Well, do you know where I can find him?"

Connor chuckled. "If I were you, I'd check out the arena," he said with an exaggerated wink. What in the world was that for?

"I already did."

"Well check again. He just left like two minutes ago. Now shoo," Connor said before he slammed the door shut.

So Chloe gave the door a respectable dent and retraced her steps back to the arena, expecting to find Leon destroying the dummies or sparring with an Ares camper or something. However, what she found was far more horrifying.

She simply stood there for a moment, taking things in before she couldn't hold it in any longer; she started to laugh uncontrollably at the sight before her.

Leon was being "beaten up" by… seven year olds. About six of them (four girls and two boys) were attacking him, running around him, jumping onto his back, and laughing maniacally as they did so. As Chloe watched, the two boys did their best effort to body slam Leon, and although she knew that he barely felt it, Leon cried out in mock pain and fell to the ground. One of the girls picked up her plastic sword and screamed, "Leth's dethtroy thith monthter onth and for all!" Chloe couldn't prevent herself from cracking up at the girl's lisp and broke into fits of giggles again. Meanwhile, the girl had brought the sword down on Leon, (who was also trying not to laugh) and caused him to groan.

"Oh, the beautiful maiden hath killed me!" he yelled in a simulated monster voice. He blinked and quieted down for a second, realizing that he had accidentally talked with a lisp, too. Leon started to laugh as well.

"Hey, dead monthters don't laugh!" The girl yelled, clearly not understanding why Leon was in hysterics.

"Thith one doeth," Leon replied between fits of laughter.

Chloe, meanwhile, was gathping, I mean gasping for breath. "Somebody's enjoying himself!" she exclaimed.

Leon closed his eyes and shook his head. "Nuh uh, I'm dead. I can't even talk to you!" he said defiantly.

Chloe had to admit that what she had just witnessed was not on the list of things that she could picture Leon doing. Leading a battle, beating Clarisse in a sword fight, destroying monsters, intimidating demigods, sure. But rolling around on the ground playing with toddlers? What the Hades?

"Leon, come on. It's about the Capture the Flag game. I have an idea," Chloe protested.

Leon sighed and sat up. "Alright kids, I gotta go. Be good to each other, all right?" he said, ruffling a boy's hair. The kids pouted. "But Leeeooon!" they chorused.

Leon grinned and promised them to play again later as he walked towards Chloe. When he approached her, he said, "And what would this brilliant idea of yours be?"

"Getting a video recording of that episode right there."

Leon laughed and replied, "You should try it some time."

"Pfft, yeah, okay. That's going to happen…"

"You're such a bore." Leon said with a playful smile.

"_I'm _a bore?! You barely know me!" Chloe exclaimed.

"Yeah, and in the short time that I've known you, you've either been yelling at me, yelling at people around me, or laughing at me," Leon said.

"Shut up."

"…and my point is hence proven." Chloe glared at him. "So what did you want to ask me?" he inquired.

"Huh?" Chloe said, momentarily confused before she remembered what she was there for. "Oh! Yeah, I had a proposition for the Capture the Flag game tonight."

"And?"

"You know how you said that you, Percy, and Annabeth would be the main attacking force?" she continued, to which Leon nodded. "Well I thought could give you guys some air support. I can run through the tree branches and control all and any plants in the forest. I'm also pretty good with a bow. What do you think?" she asked.

Leon mulled it over for a second before opening his mouth to say, "Wait a minute, hold on. Since when am I the leader? Technically, shouldn't you be asking Percy or Clarisse?"

"Come on, you're the real leader here and you know it."

"But milady, I am merely the strategist," Leon stated with a grin.

"Are you going to give me a straight answer or not?" replied an agitated Chloe.

Leon shrugged. "Personally, I'm fine with it, but you might want to let Percy know that you'll be coming along."

Chloe smiled and said, "Well that's settled then. Cool." She was glad that Leon had fallen for her false strategy. Well, it did work, but her real motives were a little different from what she had presented; she wanted to keep an eye on Leon. No, not in the creepy way, she just wanted to see his abilities once more. After what had happened at lunch a couple of days ago, where she had thought the monster resembled a Fury while everyone else claimed they were Stymphalian birds, she was getting suspicious. She was satisfied with how Leon had accepted her idea until he spoke up.

"I don't know what you expect to see me doing, Chloe. Breathe fire, start an earthquake, break dance, or what?"

"Wha- what are you talking about?" Chloe said, wincing at her flustered tone.

Leon looked her in the eye and said, "You know exactly what I'm talking about." Chloe stared at him. "I'll see you later, then," Leon said with a smirk as he walked away, leaving Chloe mildly frustrated at how frighteningly good he was at reading people.

°~oOo~°

"…Yeah, and they were totally all over him. It was freaking hilarious!" Chloe narrated to Percy and Annabeth as they got suited up for the Capture the Flag game.

Annabeth raised her eyebrows. "You're kidding, right?"

"I shit you not."

Annabeth threw her head back and laughed. "I honestly can't imagine him jostling with toddlers at all. He was all serious and composed earlier. Who knew he had a playful side?" she said.

Percy snorted, pulling on his leather greaves. "Right, I have a feeling we're about to find out just how 'playful' he really is. He's going to absolutely demolish everyone in his path. I'm glad he's on our side."

"Well for now he is," Chloe pointed out. "There'll be other games, remember? Without the Hunters?"

"Meh. We'll cross that bridge when we get there. Besides, we still got Annabeth, right?" he said, leaning over to give Annabeth a peck on the cheek.

Just then, a tall armored figure walked over to them, saying, "Are you guys ready yet?"

"Almost, Leon. Just have to get this on," Percy said, giving a tug to his left bracer. "There."

Meanwhile, Chloe was studying Leon. In his armor, he looked like he meant business. He had the usual bronze body armor, greaves, bracers, shield, and a helmet just like everyone else, but he just made it look…better. He looked right at home, unlike some other people, who couldn't stand theirs and had to constantly adjust it (a.k.a. Chloe). He stood light on his feet as always, his sculpted muscles showing because of the lack of sleeves. His golden eyes glowed warmly through the shadow on his face cast by the helmet. All in all, he looked amazing, Chloe thought.

"Done staring?" Leon said with a smirk.

Caught completely off guard, Chloe replied with, "Ha, you wish."

"Wish what? That you were done staring? Does that mean you're still staring?"

"Shut up."

"Oh, wow. That was a good one. Almost as good as the last time you said that to me."

Chloe would never admit it, but she was actually beginning to enjoy the verbal sparring, even though she lost almost exclusively.

Percy cleared his throat loudly. "Let's get everyone in position, shall we?"

°~oOo~°

After making sure that everyone was situated properly – Clarisse on the right flank, the Stolls in the middle, a few Apollo archers in the trees, and the rest guarding the flag, or _flags_, as she should say – Chloe and her group positioned themselves where they were supposed to be: the left flank. The group of four huddled together, concealed by the foliage, courtesy of the daughter of Demeter.

They knew that Clarisse was going to attack first, but in order to signal the Stolls when to attack, Percy had placed a water bottle on one of the highest branches on one of the trees between the two positions. When Leon would give the instruction, Percy would explode the bottle, indicating the sons of Hermes to advance (another idea of the Mysterious One).

Speaking of Leon, his manner had changed completely from a few minutes ago. Before, he was joking and playful. Now, like Chloe had first thought when she saw him in armor, he meant business. He was completely focused and not even one excess word left his mouth.

After a minute or two of waiting silently, with no sound in the forest other than the rustling of leaves and the breathing of her teammates, Chloe heard the familiar sound of the conch horn blowing. It had begun.

Almost immediately, five Hunters sprinted through the river and lunged through to the Campers' side, not noticing Percy's team huddled a mere six yards away. In an impressive display of reflexes, though, the Apollo archers posted above opened fire, using blunt tipped or freeze arrows, and three of the Hunters fell to the floor; one knocked out by a hit to the head, two frozen in blocks of ice. Three more Hunters leapt through to take their place. However, they did not make it far at all before they were stopped by the ridiculous amount of vegetation that had flooded the ground. Chloe couldn't help but grin at the sounds of the muffled curses as the Hunters labored through the forest. _Take that, suckers_.

In other news, Clarisse's battle cries could be heard from almost all the way across the forest. She had really taken Leon's instructions to draw attention to heart. After a minute of the sound getting fainter and fainter, it was replaced by renewed cries and the sound of swords clashing. Looks like the Hunters had finally decided to stop the Ares crew. That meant that it was time for the second part of the strategy to commence. Leon nodded to Percy, who closed his eyes, focusing on finding the water and trying to make the bottle explode. Peeking out from behind her hiding spot, Chloe searched for the bottle, but didn't need to because she saw a small explosion of water not too far away. Two seconds later, she briefly sighted Connor and Travis rushing through the river onto the opposing territory.

"If all goes as planned," whispered Leon, "We won't have a concrete sign as to when we should advance. Just wait for my signal." That sounded a little absurd to Chloe. Why would he say, "Hey, I really have no idea when we should attack, but listen to me anyway!" Judging from the frown on Annabeth's face, she was thinking the same thing, but neither of them objected. If this was his plan, he probably knew what he was doing. Probably.

A minute later, Leon's marvelous sword appeared magically in his hand. Someday, Chloe would have to ask him where and/or how he got that beauty. At the moment though, she settled for readying her bow and tensing her muscles, ready for the word that would catapult the group into action…

"Go."

Chloe needed no more encouragement before she burst out of their hiding spot, followed shortly by the others. She knew that Leon himself would wait a few seconds to allow Percy and Annabeth time to get ahead so he could properly cover their rears. No pun intended (Scratch that. Pun _totally_ intended).

She sprinted through the river, not paying attention to the fact that her lower parts of her legs were completely soaked. Instead of climbing the tree the traditional way, she called down a vine and swung herself up to a branch. Wasting no time, she jumped onto another vine and swung to the next branch, keeping up with Percy and Annabeth, who were sprinting on the ground underneath her. _I probably look like Spider-Man_, Chloe thought. And she was right. Occasionally, she would just jump to the next branch if it was close enough, but in general, kept up her vine slinging to speed through the forest. Leon shouldn't be too far behind, either.

They must have been at least a hundred yards into the Hunters' territory before they encountered the first resistance party. Two Hunters were stationed on top of a pile of boulders, ready for invaders but most likely not expecting them. Before they could release their arrows, Chloe reached out with her mind to the leaves behind the pair and willed them to fly, razor sharp, at them. The immortal huntresses shrieked at the scores of cuts that they were receiving and dropped their bows. The leaves wouldn't cause permanent harm, but they stung like Hades. _Wow, Razor Leaf!_ She thought with a chuckle. It was amazing how many of her techniques originated from using grass type Pokémon in the games. _Now for Frenzy Plant_… a pair of gnarled roots sprung out of the ground behind the Hunters, wrapping themselves around their arms and legs, effectively neutralizing them. She also made a tree branch smack each of the Hunters in the back of the head so that they wouldn't raise the alarm.

Satisfied with her work, Chloe continued her afore mentioned method of locomotion, keeping her eyes peeled for traps and unpleasant surprises. After taking out three more Hunters in a similar fashion, Chloe stopped; there were no more trees for her to swing through.

They had reached the clearing where the flag was being kept. Judging from that fact, it seemed like Leon's double diversion plan worked. They only had to deal with five Hunters, a paltry amount compared to what they would have had to face had they charged head on into the forest without a proper plan.

Two Hunters guarded the blue banner, each standing facing outwards in opposite directions with their back to the flag. Chloe smiled to herself. They may be Hunters, but they would never see this coming. This was going to be a cakewalk. After signaling for Annabeth and Percy, who were a few yards behind her, to stop, she simultaneously drew two tranquilizer arrows. The solution inside was one of Chloe's own, and with a well-placed shot, the recipient would be out cold in a second. Ignoring Percy's and Annabeth's labored breathing, she carefully took aim and sighted down the shaft of her dart, waiting for the perfect moment to let her arrows loose.

Five seconds later, she released. Two seconds after that, two heavy thuds were heard as the Hunters were knocked out and dropped to the ground. "That is the way to do it," Chloe said to congratulate herself. So far, everything was going according to plan.

She lowered herself onto the ground just as Leon finally showed up at a sprint. Curiously, he wasn't breathing nearly as hard as Percy or Annabeth. He simply closed his eyes briefly and took a deep breath, regulating his heart rate as if it was the simplest thing in the world. _Which it probably is, for him._

"Took you long enough," Chloe teased. "You missed my amazing sniping!"

"There will be enough time for admiration later. Right now we need to get that flag. Percy, go." Leon replied stiffly.

Percy shook his head. "Nuh-uh. You came up with this strategy; the flag's yours," he protested.

"If you respect my strategy so much, then go get the banner now," Leon replied calmly. "We don't want to linger for longer than necessary."

Percy sighed, and without another word, burst into the clearing and grabbed the flag, nervously looking around to see if anyone would try to shoot him. Chloe knew that they wouldn't. The rules clearly stated that only two players could guard the flag or the immediate vicinity, and the Hunters were too proud to cheat. So Percy made it back safely, smiling at the trophy in his hands. Leon smiled lightly, too. "Come on," he said. "We haven't won yet."

The group started back towards their side in the same fashion that they had gotten there in. Annabeth had protested that Leon should be in front of them this time, but Leon had convinced her that he should still be behind them in case someone went after them, and that Chloe would scout in front.

Chloe herself did not see anything that would be a problem at first, but she heard some muffled cries behind her. _Seems like Leon finally has something to do,_ she thought. _And he placed himself behind me so I can't see squat._ Ignoring her irritation, Chloe moved on, swiftly swinging/jumping her way through the trees and keeping her eyes peeled for Hunters. They kept going until the river was a mere ten yards away. _We've definitely got this,_ Chloe thought with a giddy smile.

That's when everything went wrong.

Mid-swing, someone threw a knife at her vine, slicing through the plant and sending Chloe tumbling down, screaming at the leaves and branches whipping at her face. However, she managed to call another vine to slow her fall. She still fell pretty hard, but the vine gave her a chance to land in a roll without too much injury. Lightning quick, Chloe drew an arrow, turning rapidly and aiming at every potential hiding spot, expecting to see a girl with black clothes and a silvery glow; the mark of a Hunter of Artemis. She saw no such thing. She was starting to get confused until she heard Percy, who was about twenty feet behind her, yell at the top of his lungs, "ANNABETH, WATCH OUT!"

She clambered back up a tree, deciding that she would be of more use to them from a distance. She was meant to be air support, after all. Underneath her, she felt someone spring past, but before she could identify them, they were gone. Moving past them, she followed the sounds of Annabeth and Percy's yelps.

"Help!" yelled Percy.

It took her two swings to reach the tree that gave her the best view of the attack. What she saw was a scene straight out of her nightmares; the ones she got the night after seeing a zombie horror film, and caused Chloe to switch from her tranq arrow to a real Celestial Bronze tipped one. A large fissure split the ground, and was slowly closing, but that's not what disturbed her. What disturbed her was what she could only guess had come out of the fissures: six skeleton-looking men had surrounded Percy and Annabeth, who were standing back to back with their respective weapons drawn, the latter with a long cut on her cheek. The skeletons were a horrific shade of gray, and as Chloe watched, frozen by how repulsed she was, they grew flesh and turned into what could only be described as undead men. They were dressed in modern military uniforms which were gray, just like the rest of them. Their dull and dead yellow eyes creeped Chloe out to no end, and even though they were solid, they were still…not solid. Kind of like if someone had put flesh and clothes onto a skeleton in photoshop and then turned down the opacity, or like an x-ray.

"Where is he?!" demanded on of them in the most raspy voice Chloe had ever heard. _Where is he? That's the same thing the vultures said! Who do they even want?_

She pushed the thought out of her mind when one of them began to advance, and Chloe shook herself out of her trance and released her arrow, which flew completely through the warrior's head with a slick swoosh, entering between his eyes. Chloe had been expecting him to explode into dust like monsters or drop dead, but nobody had told the thing that those were his options. He slowly tilted his head towards Chloe's position with black blood splattered on his face. The dead eyes still showed no emotion, but the warrior took something the size of a fist out from his jacket. In the meantime, the rest of the people, both living and undead, turned to face Chloe.

_Well, crap._

She didn't have much time to think, though, before the skeleton pulled what looked like a pin from what Chloe recognized as a grenade, and chucked it at her. _Oh SHI-!_ She threw herself to the side to avoid the grenade, but it exploded in midair, making her jump a more extensive distance than she had originally intended. Chloe sailed through the air and twisted to avoid colliding into a tree, but wasn't able to protect her leg from slamming into it, and scream as a result. "My leg!" she yelled, and then berated herself for using SpongeBob references during a battle. She landed painfully at the foot of another tree and tried to sit up and absorb what was going on.

Apparently, when the grenade had exploded, Percy and Annabeth had used the distraction as an opening to attack, but they were in bad shape from what Chloe could tell. Percy slashed and hacked at the warriors in his best effort to repel them from Annabeth. They couldn't hurt him, but no matter how close to Annabeth Percy stayed, the same could not be said for her. In addition to the fact that he was protecting Annabeth, the main problem was that, well, the darn things wouldn't die. Almost all of them had numerous stab wounds, missing limbs, eyes, and other generally useful appliances, but if they felt it, Chloe could not see. They relentlessly maintained their assault.

"Hades! We need a son of Hades!" Annabeth exclaimed. Forget Hades, Chloe thought. Where in the name of Kronos' left comb over was Leon?! Chloe was willing to bet a quiver full of arrows that he could be useful at the present situation.

Deciding to make herself of use, she ignored the pain in her leg and controlled the trees to make the branches attack the undead warriors. It was basically useless and she was draining herself way too quickly, almost slipping out of consciousness due to a combination of shock, fatigue, and pain. She must have broken her leg, Chloe thought, but fought to stay conscious.

It was worth it.

From the direction of the river, two gargantuan hands forming fists, composed entirely of thousands of gallons of flowing water, shot towards the skeletons. The undead warriors didn't stand a chance. The fists smashed them, churned them, pounded them, and did basically every action that involved hitting to round the warriors up together. Once they were in a loose group together, the water streams began circling them, going faster and faster and eventually swallowing up the skeletal warriors until they were caught in a mini whirlpool right there in the middle of the forest. And just like that, the water froze, in exactly the same shape that it had been spinning in. Through the beautiful and smooth curves of the ice, Chloe could see the contorted bodies of their assailants contained within. What happened next startled Chloe almost as much as originally seeing the said assailants had: the ice shattered into pieces so small that it looked like someone had thrown a glitter bomb. The sight was strikingly brilliant, but the most beautiful part according to Chloe was the fact that the warriors were gone. Once the shattered ice settled, there was no sign of the gruesome undead, other than the ripped up vegetation on the ground at the scene.

Chloe saw Annabeth turn towards Percy with a shocked expression. "When did you learn how to do that?!" She demanded.

Percy looked even more shocked than Annabeth, his green eyes opened so wide it looked like they wanted to escape their sockets. "It – what – no, I didn't – that wasn't me!" he managed to choke out.

Just then, a tall armored figure with gold eyes gleaming underneath his helmet casually strolled out from behind the trees.

"Sorry I was late, guys. I ran into a misunderstanding with the river nymph, and had to persuade her that her water was going to be fine before I came here. Hope everyone's alright," said Leon.

~°oOo°~

Chloe couldn't believe her eyes. Or her ears. Or pretty much any of her senses, since she was half-conscious – yup, that leg was definitely broken.

Nevertheless, her mouth dropped when she realized what had just happened. That ridonculous display of utter domination had just been caused by Leon. She was still trying to wrap her brain around that when people started to trickle into the clearing - starting with Nico di Angelo and Chiron. Slowly, a crowd started to gather at the scene of the attack.

"Percy! Annabeth!" shouted a concerned Nico. If he could have been any paler, he probably would have been. "What in the name of Hades...I thought I sensed some _sparti _nearby!"

"Yes, he reported it to me and we had to rush over here without even properly ending the game. What _happened_ to you guys?" said a concerned Chiron while he treated Percy and Annabeth to ambrosia and nectar.

Before any of them could reply, Chloe groaned so that someone out of the crowd that had gathered – meaning about fifty people – would hear her and treat her. She didn't feel like putting in enough effort to actually produce real words.

"Oh, dear," what Chiron's response. He gestured towards Chloe, looking at Jill, an Apollo healer. Jill hurried over and handed Chloe a square of ambrosia. The daughter of Demeter hungrily munched on the godly food and instantaneously felt energized. The crowd watched silently as she wrapped Chloe's leg in a temporary cast. How she automatically knew that the problem was a broken leg, Chloe did not know, but she suspected that it had something to do with the fact Jill was, indeed, a daughter of the god of medicine. Or maybe it was just because her leg wasn't supposed to be bent at that angle…

Now that Chloe's leg was treated, Chiron turned back to Percy and Annabeth and repeated his question. Percy looked scandalized at the moment, and Chloe had a pretty good idea why, considering the water powers that Leon had just displayed. The two glanced at each other, and then at Leon before Annabeth answered in a cautious tone, "Well, we're not exactly sure. We were just rushing back towards our side to win the game," she gestured at the banner that was now lying on the ground a few feet away, "when this fissure opened up right in front of us. Six skeleton warriors came out – what did you call them, _sparti_?" Nico nodded.

Percy took it from there and said in a low and quiet voice, "They're horrible creatures from the Underworld. I fought a couple of them a few years ago, when Annabeth and Artemis were captured by Atlas. They worst part is they don't die when you think you killed them. The best way to kill them is to destroy them with something from the Underworld, get a child of Hades to fight them, or get them to fight each other if you can. At least that's what I thought until about two minutes ago." He narrowed his eyes at Leon. "What was that? And if it was you, how did you do that?" Percy challenged, and everyone's gaze shifted to Leon.

Leon took his helmet off, and took a deep breath. "I guess it would be pointless to try and pass this off as the nymph's doing, wouldn't it?" he said with an emotionless face.

"Absolutely." Chloe spoke up from her seat on the ground. "You pretty much admitted to us that it was you when you came back." The crowd watching began to nervously murmur amongst themselves.

"Then yes, what you saw was indeed me."

Pandemonium broke out. The spectators started yelling at Chiron and Percy's group trying to finally figure out what the hell was going on. Clarisse yelled in the lead. Meanwhile, Annabeth and Percy started screaming at Leon, who held his ground without speaking a word. Again, his face showed no emotion. Percy looked enraged, and he strode over to Leon and violently grabbed him by his shoulders. Chloe couldn't figure out what Leon was saying, but she could see him mouthing something that looked like _let go now._ There was a dangerous light in his eyes, leaving no hint of the playful teenager Chloe had seen earlier that day. Chiron and Annabeth tried to control the mayhem, but failed utterly. What finally made them calm down was something that made Chloe's mouth drop for the third time that day.

It was something she had seen once, six years ago – when Percy Jackson had played his first game of Capture the Flag. The area lit up in an eerie blue-green light and when it appeared, the campers dropped to a state of pin-drop silence. With eyes as big as golf balls, Chiron sunk to one knee, and every camper present followed suit, except for Percy Jackson, whose expression was blocked from Chloe's view, but she could see his hands tightly clenched in fists. Every camper looked completely shocked. Annabeth's expression was confused at the symbol, but worried about her boyfriend. Nico stood stony faced, vacantly staring at the hologram. Leon himself looked like someone had just ordered his execution, and, as usual, Chloe couldn't figure out why. But she drew her attention once again to the fully formed symbol and a gasp escaped her lips.

There, hovering above Leon's head like a fiery logo, was a brilliant glowing trident: the sign of a claiming.

Chiron opened his mouth to say in a grave tone, "All hail Leonidas Aurelio, son of Poseidon, lord of the seas, bringer of storms, god of earthquakes."

**What do you wonderful readers think? Review it up! As always, I love predictions; it gives me an idea of how well I'm misguiding you folks ;)**


	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry for the hiatus. It was my first one, and definitely not the last (sadly).**

**As you'll find out soon enough, I've decided to actually have a Leon POV and as of now, a lot of the story is going to be from his perspective (It kind of just made the characterization easier). This chapter contains the biggest statement concerning Leon's identity as a special treat from me for making you wait so long.**

**And I wish to give a virtual high five to anyone who catches the Star Wars reference(s)/quote.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any characters featured in the PJO or HoH series**

Leon POV

Leon didn't need to be a genius to know that he would have to embark on a quest very soon. Despite his predictions, the Underworld's attacks on the camp were occurring far too frequently. He had to solve this problem from its roots; not just by slaying the occasional monster that showed up. And hellhounds were one thing. Furies and _sparti_ were a whole different story. As far as Leon knew, there were only two people in the camp capable of fighting and defeating Furies: himself and Nico di Angelo, the son of Hades, though Percy might be able to, given enough training…

But speaking of slaying monsters, Leon would have to do something about Chloe. She had killed two hellhounds that were meant for him, meaning that she had just involved herself in Leon's conflict. He would talk to her later. Right now, he had other things to worry about.

Leon stood on the surface of the water, about a hundred feet off from the shore, doing his version of meditating. This involved complete peace of mind and harmony with the environment and elements. The water in front of him twisted and turned every way possible, creating marvelous three-dimensional shapes and forms. It was midnight, and he couldn't sleep. Water had always calmed him down and provided an escape from nightmares of both sleep and reality, but ever since that fateful day, it also served as a painful reminder as to what had occurred. Of what he had lost. Tonight was another night that would not be easily forgotten. The Capture the Flag game, oh that had gone wonderfully. His strategy had worked. Once everyone had semi-recovered from the shock of seeing him claimed, Thalia had pointed out that she had the Campers' banner. Leon had simply nodded to Seth, who snapped his fingers and the decoy that Thalia held had vanished. He had then told Percy to take the Hunters' banner back to their side, meaning that the Campers had won a Capture the Flag game against the Hunters for the first time in over two hundred years.

Big Whoop.

But the claiming? To be honest, Leon was enraged that Poseidon had claimed him. The rational part of his brain told him that if Poseidon didn't claim him, there would have been too much suspicion, considering that he had openly used his water powers, and he knew that Poseidon had logically done the right thing. _But then what's going to happen when I reveal my other powers - the ones that aren't related to water? _However, it was at times like these when Leon hated his spartanesque training. Growing up in a military environment as an officer of a tyrant of sorts was very demanding, and he was still adjusting to the social protocol of regular teenagers…or as regular as demigods could be. And it wasn't that he was bad at it; on the contrary, Leon found that he was good at most things that he tried, but some things still confused him. For example, why did the guys always greet each other with violence – a punch on the shoulder, a slap in the back, etc. And why did best friends always insult each other? Wasn't that what enemies were for? Why did the girls go to the bathroom in groups? Did they need to help each other out or something? Leon shook his head, banishing the enigma of regular teenage life from his mind. He may be a genius, but he was just as ADHD as the rest of the demigods.

What rushed into his thoughts afterwards made him yearn for the previous topic. Memories of his older brother had plagued his dreams, as if they were suddenly triggered by the claiming. He tried to instruct his highly disciplined brain to shut up and move on, but telling that to his heart was another matter altogether. His body just simply refused to go to sleep, and that was why he was here, out on the beach, not in his new home.

Now, admittedly, the reason for his lack of sleep was partially the awkwardness of moving into the Poseidon cabin. He had lugged his sparse belongings into the cabin after the game, with everyone's eyes on him, whispering to their friends about everything there was to whisper about. Of the several beds in the cabin, he moved his stuff to the one farthest away from Percy's. Percy, meanwhile, was still not talking to him. After the kindness that Percy had shown him when he had first entered the camp, especially during dinner, when he needed help with the sacrifice part, he felt like he had somehow betrayed the guy. This brought back so much memories and so much pain that Leon couldn't bring himself to talk to Percy, either.

As for the nightmares every night, this one was no exception. In fact, it was definitely worse. He had gone to bed directly after the game, at only nine o'clock. He suspected that Percy would have stayed awake, most likely meeting up with the daughter of Athena, Annabeth. That was another thing that he couldn't fully grasp. Leon understood how their relationship got its foundation: every soldier developed some kind of bond with his comrades. However, romance was the single most confusing thing he had ever encountered. Advanced Calculus? Sure, piece of cake. But romance? No thanks. _Well, _Leon thought, _It might because my exposure to the opposite gender has been minimal._

The thought of comrades suddenly reminded Leon of his dream. Everything seemed to be doing so lately.

He remembered making the water propel him along faster than a speedboat, next to his brother, and was swept away into a flashback…

"_Come on, only a couple miles to go until we can get out of this damn hellhole," Felix exclaimed giddily._

_Leon looked over at Felix and marveled at how happy he looked: the edges of lips curved in a light smile, his eyes shining. He never looked like that. Leon hated to be such a downer, but he had to say, "Stay focused. We're not done yet."_

"_Yeah, I know…"_

_So they continued silently, and although Leon knew that they were moving at a speed that few could match, he could still feel his heart pounding so hard he thought it would burst through his chest. _

_And it almost did when the horn sounded, which meant one thing. Their pursuers had caught up to them._

_Felix grabbed Leon's arm and yelled, "GO!"_

_Leon's eyes widened in alarm when he realized what his brother meant. "What?! No, I'm not leaving without you!" he yelled._

"_Listen," Felix began in a firm tone, pulling Leon close to him. "If you don't leave now, all that sacrifice will be in vain. This way, at least one of us can get away and let the gods know."_

_Leon struggled against his brother's grip. "But you'll die if you go there alone! That's an entire army!"_

_Felix smiled. "Leonidas, brother, you risked your life to save mine when I had almost no chance of surviving. This is my gift to you. Go, live your life."_

"_But you can't just –"_

"_Yes I can. I'm the older sibling, remember? This is my duty."_

_A pot of Greek fire exploded ten feet away._

"_Felix…" Leon whispered and hung his head. _

_His brother pulled him into an embrace. "We'll see each other again, Leonidas, I promise. NOW GO!" he yelled as he pushed Leon away and propelled himself towards the advancing army. The sea was torn apart by the otherworldly powers displayed by the opposing sides, and Leon let loose a mournful scream - ._

Leon's thoughts were interrupted by splashing from behind him, and the water he had been controlling fell from his grasp. Mentally berating himself for letting his guard down, he quickly wiped his eyes of the moisture that had accumulated and stood up, facing the silhouette. It was just Percy, Leon reasoned. As far as he knew, not many campers could walk on water.

Leon exhaled and relaxed his body once more and turned away, not really wanting to talk to anyone at the moment.

"Mind if I join you?" called Percy, walking up to Leon.

Leon replied without turning around, "Well, seeing as you already have, I suppose so." He did his best to try and regain the state of calm that overtook him while he was meditating, but without the water bending display. He didn't want to be a loser and rub something that offended Percy in his face.

"That stuff you do with the water, how you can make it change and control it," Percy interrupted again. "It's really awesome. I mean, I can do some stuff, but nothing even close to that precision."

"Thank you," Leon said simply. He knew Percy had meant the compliment, but there was something else… "But I'm guessing you didn't come all the way out here to compliment me."

"I usually come out here when I can't sleep," Percy responded. "It relaxes me."

"Yet you're still fidgeting," Leon noted. He didn't need to see Percy to know that; during his meditation, he was aware enough of the water that he could feel the vibrations despite the waves. Percy shifted uncomfortably, clearly unnerved by how acute Leon's observations were. "And," Leon continued, "Your idea of relaxing was hanging out with me? Percy, people have sought my presence for many reasons over the years. Relaxation is not one of them."

Percy huffed. "Straight to the point, huh?"

"That's generally how I like things," Leon responded, finally turning towards his newfound brother.

Percy took a deep breath to steady himself and lowered his eyes from Leon's gold ones. "Look," he started.

Leon waited.

"I wanted to apologize for acting like a total jerk tonight. It's not like me. I was just caught off guard that's all. I mean, I've never really had a brother before. Well, other than Tyson, but that's kind of different. And I didn't want to make you feel like an outsider. I know that as a demigod it's hard to find somewhere to fit in, and I didn't want to take another place away from you and - ."

"Percy."

"Huh?"

"You're ranting," Leon said with a slight smile.

Percy sighed. "Yeah, I know. It's just…sorry," he apologized sincerely.

This was a new phenomenon for Leon. Nobody had ever really apologized to him. Where he came from, it was viewed as a weakness. If you messed up, you were punished, and that was the end of it. The feeling that swam in his brain was completely alien, and this time _he_ was mentally caught off guard. Managing to retain his composure, Leon replied, "It's fine." There was no point in holding a grudge.

"So…are you going on a quest for this?" Percy said, moving his arms in a universal "this crap" gesture.

"Most likely." Leon replied. "How did you guess?"

"That's what happened the last time a camper pissed off the Lord of the Dead."

"And who was that?" Leon said, raising an eyebrow in genuine interest

Percy spread his arms. "Yours truly," he said with a smirk. He walked a little closer to Leon so he wouldn't have to speak as loudly. "He thought I stole his Helm of Darkness. I thought he stole Zeus' Master Bolt."

Leon raised his eyebrows, impressed. "When was this?" he asked.

"Wow, that was five years ago." Percy replied. _So that's what all the commotion was about back then. I thought it was just another typical family spat._

"I'll tell you the story some other time," Percy continued. "What about you? What did you do?"

_Oh, nothing much. Just reject the most generous gift Hades had ever offered anyone and then try to bring someone back from the dead._

"I don't know," Leon said. Judging from Percy's facial expression, though, Leon knew he didn't buy it, but he didn't pursue the matter.

"And when do we leave?" Percy asked.

"Probably early tomorrow morning," Leon said absentmindedly. Then he shook his head. "Wait, what? We?" he said incredulously.

"Why, when, water, wish, wind -," Percy stopped himself when he saw Leon's expression. "I thought we were listing words that began with 'W'" he said.

"No, hold on. When did this become 'we?'" Leon demanded.

"When I decided that I was going to be a nice guy and help you out," Percy shot back.

"Percy, you don't understand," Leon argued. "You have nothing to do with this conflict. There's no need to be reckless and make yourself a target for the Lord of the Dead."

"I've been down there before. You could use the experience. And besides, Cerberus is almost like a personal friend."

Leon snorted. "That's like saying a bear trap didn't go off on your head when you stuck it in the first time, so you're going to try again. And besides, the bear is a personal friend," he joked.

Unfazed, Percy replied, "Or it could be like saying I'm a seasoned veteran and know how to survive better than you."

"Right," Leon said sarcastically.

"I've got the Curse of Achilles," tried Percy.

That got his attention. Leon whipped around to face Percy. "_What?_" he exclaimed.

Percy smiled. "Last summer," he said. "I had to get it in order to stand a chance against Kronos."

"Do you have _any_ idea how dangerous that was?" Leon demanded.

"You sound like Annabeth."

"Good for her. She cares about you. But that's not the point," Leon said.

"Neither is the fact that what I did was dangerous," Percy retorted. "The point is, I've got the curse now, and I _know_ I can help you. Why won't you let me?"

Leon opened his mouth to reply, but realized that he had no valid argument. He looked up at Percy again for a moment with new respect in his eyes. Percy had his jaw set, and his eyes had a light of defiance in them, showing that he had no intention of backing down. It took guts to agree to bathe in the Styx – _either guts or stupidity, _his rational side argued – and it took major resolve and determination to make it back out. Percy _was_ special, Leon conceded. And he was right when he said that he would need all the help he could get, especially since he was going to ask Hades himself what he wanted. He was essentially going on a quest to obtain another quest. There was still one thing that bothered him, though.

"Why?" Leon asked again, looking straight at Percy's sea-green eyes to let him know that he wanted a real reason. "Why would you risk your safety, your life, and your future just to take part in a suicide mission that had nothing to do with you in the first place, for a guy that you just met a couple days ago?"

"Because I've had to deal with a number of my own suicide missions," Percy replied solemnly. "I know how it feels. And let's face it – as a demigod, heck, as a human, any day could be our last. Might as well make good use of them."

"But what about your friends? What would they think? All those years you spent forging ties with them could all be thrown away in an instant down in the Underworld. If you died, and I lived, I would never be able to face Annabeth," Leon said cautiously.

At this, Percy hesitated. Then he said, "I hope you realize that she'll be coming with us, too. There's no way she'd let me go to the Underworld without her."

Leon sighed. "So you're completely set on following me?"

Percy took a deep breath and moved his gaze to the horizon. "My mom once told me that the biggest problem in this world is that nobody helps each other. You may be a new acquaintance, but you're still my brother. If anything happened to you on this quest that I could have prevented had I been there, I would never forgive myself. And knowing the Underworld, you most likely _will _die if you go there alone.

Leon stared at Percy, shocked. "What did you just say?!" he choked out

A bit startled, Percy responded, "Uh, I said you would most likely die if you go there alone."

Leon was rendered speechless as the line came back to him. _"But you'll die if you go there alone!"_ Exactly what he had pleaded to his brother, Felix, when he was about to leave. And now here was Percy, wanting to accompany him simply because he was his brother and he needed help. With a start, he realized that being claimed by Poseidon might not just have been a strategic move from the sea god. Maybe he was being given another chance. He had one brother taken away from him, and he had just been given another. It was at that moment that Leon realized what Percy was trying to say and why he was protesting. And it was at that moment that he decided that as long as he was alive, he would protect Percy with all his power. Percy, who had trusted him when the entire camp was suspicious. He had heard rumors about him, but by the gods, Percy really was one of a kind.

"Get some sleep," Leon ordered, looking away from Percy and turning back to the sea.

"Um…what?" said a confused Percy.

"If you're going to accompany me to the Underworld, you should at least get some rest," Leon said. "We ride at dawn," he added with a small smile.

Percy raised an eyebrow. "Dawn's in, like, four hours. No way am I getting up that early," he stated.

Leon chuckled and shrugged. "Yeah, I know," he said. "It's just that 'we ride at nine o'clock after breakfast' doesn't have the same ring to it."

Judging from his reaction, Percy was surprised at Leon's sudden change in demeanor. He went from dead serious to sarcastic in the blink of an eye.

After a small laugh, Percy said, "Got that right," and started to walk away, back to Cabin Three.

Before he was out of earshot, though, Leon called, "Percy." Percy stopped and turned to look at Leon.

"Thank you," Leon said, trying to express his immense gratitude in those two simple words. Percy flashed a grin and gave him a small nod before he left, leaving Leon alone outside, with only his depressing thoughts about the upcoming quest to keep him company.

He looked back at the sea, taking in a full breath of the summer ocean breeze. "I'm actually here, Felix," he said. Leon never thought that he would be sentimental that way, but here he was, talking to the ocean like it was his brother. And there was something oddly peaceful and satisfying about it. He thought about what he would say if Felix was actually here.

"I miss you _so _much," he muttered. "Things are rough right now, but maybe they're starting to shape up," he said, thinking of Percy. It was because of him that the quest did not seem as hopeless as before. He felt confidence well up inside him. They could do this. He and his friends could save Camp Half-Blood.

_Friend. _He had actually made a friend out here. Then he thought about Chloe. _Maybe even two friends_, he thought with a smile. Sad as it may be, this was actually a relatively new feeling for Leon. After all, true comrades are hard to come by when your father is Oceanus.

**An appropriate response:**

.


End file.
